6 Teens Arrested in Attack Outside Restaurant : Crime: They are accused of beating three Westlake High School youths and stabbing one during a melee.

THOUSAND OAKS — Six youths suspected in a vicious brawl after a football game last Friday were arrested by sheriff’s deputies Thursday, three of them called out of their high school classrooms, authorities said.

Twenty-five deputies swarmed through the area, arresting suspects at Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park high schools and two more from their homes, sheriff’s spokesman Rod Mendoza said. Another youth turned himself in to deputies later in the day.

The Thousand Oaks teen-agers, all of them suspected gang members, are accused of beating three Westlake High School youths and stabbing one of them in a brawl outside Hudson’s Grill in Thousand Oaks.

The arrests came shortly before 75 Thousand Oaks residents gathered in Westlake High School’s Little Theater to discuss juvenile crime at a forum sponsored by the city’s Crime Prevention Task Force.

Acting Police Chief Kathy Kemp asked the community to get involved in bringing all the suspects in the melee to justice.

“If you witnessed the incident, if you feel like you could identify a suspect in a lineup, if you saw some vehicles that may be involved, we need your help,” Kemp said.

The fight was seen by dozens of people, who later helped identify the suspects. The youths were all between the ages of 15 and 17, except for Ben Frank, 18, of Thousand Oaks, who was booked into Ventura County Jail.

The other suspects are expected to spend the weekend in Juvenile Hall and go before a judge for arraignment Monday, Mendoza said.

Deputies believe about 15 individuals were involved in the incident and expect to soon make several more arrests, he said.

The youths will be charged with assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit a felony, Mendoza said.

The three victims were treated and released for cuts and bruises after the attack by alleged gang members carrying a pipe, a knife and several bottles.

Mendoza said the suspects may have mistaken the victims for gang members from outside Thousand Oaks.

“The suspects asked the victims where they were from,” Mendoza said. “When they got no response, or at least one they didn’t like, they attacked them.”

Although Thousand Oaks is consistently ranked as one of the safest cities of its size in the nation, the incident is the latest violent attack on students in the Conejo Unified School District in recent years.

In May, a football player was stabbed in the neck at Thousand Oaks High School, prompting his friends to attack the student accused of the stabbing. Neither student was seriously injured.

And in February, 1994, three Westlake High School students were wounded by gunshots in an attack during an after-school brawl at a park near campus. Four students, including two others from Westlake High, were charged in the attack. Two of them so far have been convicted and ordered to serve brief sentences.

At Thursday night’s meeting, panelists, who included attorneys, sheriff’s deputies and a Ventura County judge, discussed how such incidents can be prevented.

Panelists urged parents to look for signs of gang affiliation and to stay involved in their children’s social lives.

“You might look very seriously at your kids when they go out the door at night,” said Kemp, who told the crowd that one of the victims in last Friday’s incident had been dressed in the baggy clothes favored by gang members.

Superior Court Judge Steve Perren said the two surest signs of teen-agers’ possible gang involvement are when they keep excessively late hours and have diminished performance at school.