2 Youths Wounded in Confrontation : Thousand Oaks: Westlake High athletes are caught in gunfire stemming from student rivalry. It follows after-school violence in Simi Valley.

Two Westlake High football players were wounded Thursday during a shooting on a Thousand Oaks street corner, as animosity between teen-age rivals led to after-school bloodshed for the second time this week in eastern Ventura County.

Juniors David Behling and Scott Smith were shot at noon just outside North Ranch Park, where they and a dozen friends had converged to watch a scheduled fistfight between two other Westlake High students, police said. A third student, 16-year-old Jarad Kline, was grazed by a bullet but not seriously injured.

Police had made no arrests by late Thursday, though they were interviewing dozens of witnesses.

The incident began after at least 30 students gathered in the park after completing final exams Thursday morning. Witnesses said they had expected to watch a one-on-one punching match between a junior football player and a sophomore student at the park, which is about 2 1/2 miles north of the school in a neighborhood of expensive homes.

The sophomore arrived at the park with several carloads of older friends, witnesses said. They began whacking on the football player, identified as Curtis Simmons, with a 2-by-4 and a baseball bat, witnesses said. When Curtis fled, witnesses said, one of his adversaries opened fire with a small handgun, spraying up to eight bullets into a knot of frightened, furious onlookers.

“It was shocking. It was stunning. I can’t believe it,” said football player Mike Priebe, who witnessed the violence.

David Behling, a 6-foot-1 defensive end shot in the base of the skull, was being held overnight at Westlake Medical Center for observation. The emergency room physician who treated him said the bullet smashed into his neck behind his left ear, fracturing his skull. Although the bullet has been removed, the physician was watching for possible infection.

Scott Smith--who took a bullet in the right shoulder and then crouched, bleeding, on the pavement to comfort his more seriously wounded teammate--was treated in the hospital’s emergency room and released Thursday afternoon.

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Both boys should be able to play football again next season, physicians said.

Coming just two days after the fatal stabbing of a ninth-grader outside Simi Valley’s Valley View Junior High, the gunfire rattled students, school administrators and city officials in Thousand Oaks. And the incident reminded many that even campuses in the nation’s safest cities can foster bloody rivalries.

“Westlake’s a little paradise here, but you’re not immune anywhere,” said Dr. Frank Gillingham, director of the Westlake emergency room. “We know it’s coming. We don’t have our heads stuck in the sand.”

Ventura County Sheriff’s Cmdr. Kathy Kemp said detectives had not determined whether the incident was gang-related. But friends of the victims and school administrators suspect that the fight stemmed from a long-running feud between Curtis Simmons and his sophomore rival.

Curtis declined to comment, and the sophomore could not be reached.

A beefy, 220-pound defensive end on the Westlake High School football team, Curtis had faced the same rival in a fistfight last year, witnesses and school officials said. Both participants were suspended for five days. When they returned to school, they immediately renewed their mutual hatred, officials said.

“The kid didn’t like the results of the last fight, and he’s been egging on my son all year,” said Dani Simmons, Curtis’ father. “It finally came to a head.”

After hearing persistent reports that the two were spoiling for another high-profile fight, Westlake High Assistant Principal Jim Martin said he called both students into his office last week.

He warned them not to resort to violence. If either boy suggested a showdown, he said, the other should immediately tell administrators.

“But neither was interested in listening to reason,” Martin said Thursday.

Aware of campus scuttlebutt that one of the rivals had obtained a gun, Martin searched both boys’ lockers--but turned up no weapons.

“I don’t see anything else we could have done,” Martin said. “We investigated the rumor and we talked with the boys.”

Despite the locker search, Curtis’ parents remained anxious--especially in the wake of Tuesday’s fatal stabbing of the 14-year-old student in Simi Valley. Cindy Simmons said she called Westlake High School on Thursday morning to voice her fears.

But even as his worried mother was on the phone, Curtis--described by friends as stubborn and macho--was heading to North Ranch Park for the showdown, which had been widely publicized among his friends.

His unnamed rival, reportedly a much smaller youth, had challenged Curtis to a fight in the school parking lot last Friday but failed to appear, several football players said. The antagonists rescheduled the showdown for Thursday, after final exams ended and school let out at 11:30 a.m.

While Curtis’ friends said they came to the park unarmed, they were prepared to back their buddy up if necessary.

David Behling’s 16-year-old girlfriend said the shooting victim “was ready to fight if he had to. He won’t start a fight but he will stand up for his friends.”

Even though they were ready for a brawl, several students at the park said they were astounded that taunts, threats and fistfights could escalate into gunshots so quickly.

Some praised Westlake High administrators for stopping previous campus scuffles and working to head off conflicts like the simmering rivalry that erupted in violence Thursday.

“Around here, the administration really jumps on fights,” student Bob Adair said.

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In the past few weeks, school board members have talked about developing a policy for expelling gang members solely because of their gang ties. And hours after the shooting, school officials said they would consider other measures as well to safeguard their campuses.

“We’ve got metal detectors, and this may prompt us to use them,” said Jerry Gross, superintendent of the Conejo Valley Unified School District. “We’re in extreme times now. Maybe extreme measures are necessary.”

Other civic leaders, however, emphasized that school policies alone cannot eliminate teen-age violence. Thousand Oaks Mayor Elois Zeanah has been planning a citywide forum on crime prevention for next month, and school board President Dolores Didio on Thursday called for renewed cooperation between teachers, administrators and parents.

“People said the stabbing in Simi Valley was an isolated incident, but that clearly is not true,” Thousand Oaks Councilman Frank Schillo said. “We cannot live next to the highest crime area in the country--that being Los Angeles--without it affecting us. We’ve got to protect ourselves.”

Times staff writers Peggy Y. Lee, Christina Lima and Steve Henson and correspondents Brenda Day, Julie Fields, James Maiella Jr., J.E. Mitchell and Matthew Mosk contributed to this story.