Parents Monitor School After Fighting

Dozens of parents spent Thursday at Inglewood High School monitoring the downtown campus in the wake of a melee Wednesday that sent students pouring out of the school, administrators said.

Inglewood Unified School District spokesman Maurice Wiley reported that the campus was calm the day after Supt. George McKenna suspended classes early out of fear for students’ safety.

Wiley said a gang-related fight between a black student and a Latino student during lunch hour escalated into mass fighting along racial lines. But he and other district officials downplayed the racial element and said gangs were at the root of the problem.

At Wednesday night’s school board meeting, McKenna called the fighting “a spontaneous event that, unfortunately, could happen anywhere, any time, at any school.”