Commission Calls School Fight a Hate Crime

A fight between two Newport Harbor High School sophomores that apparently began over a thrown Tater Tot at lunch has been classified a hate crime by the county Human Relations Commission, according to director Rusty Kennedy.

Newport Beach police are investigating the incident, which happened Friday at noon and lasted about two minutes.

“Our officers are asking witnesses if they heard any racial slurs before or during the incident,” said police spokesman Sgt. Mike McDermott. “But right now, it sounds like a typical ‘He pushed me, I shoved him’ high school fight.”

The Latino student was treated at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach to straighten front teeth that had been knocked back by a punch. He was released that afternoon.

Both students were suspended for a week, according to school Principal Bob Boise, who said he helped break up the fight. Two other students, who were seen kicking and throwing a milk carton at the boys as they wrestled, were also suspended, he said.

Boise and several students interviewed on campus said the fight was not racially motivated. They said race relations at the school, which is 76% white and has a rapidly growing Latino population, are good but conceded that there is little interaction between primarily white Newport Beach students and Spanish-speaking students, many of whom are bused from Costa Mesa.

In an attempt to bring students together, the school hosts an “international week” each year to learn about other cultures, and there is an Ambassadors Club of 30 students that tries to defuse tensions, Boise said.

Commission investigator Tina Fernandez said the Spanish-speaking Latino student, whose teeth are now wired in place, told her he had been taunted by the white students for weeks, and that whites often shouted insults to Spanish-speaking Latinos.

The student told her that after he was hit with the food, he traded words with the other students and then tried to push his way out of the crowd. He was then punched, thrown to the ground and beaten and kicked by at least 10 white students, Fernandez said she was told.