Jesse Jackson Agrees on Alternative School for Expelled Students

The Rev. Jesse Jackson dropped his demand Wednesday that six students expelled for a fight at a football game be allowed back in school, saying he would support moving them into alternative education classes.

Earlier, Jackson had rejected a school board offer to cut the students’ two-year expulsions to one year and put them in alternative school for the year. He said he wanted them re-enrolled immediately.

“If alternative school is part of a grander scheme in getting the kids back into the school system, that’s acceptable,” Jackson said Wednesday. He said he wanted those eligible to graduate this year to still be able to do so.

Six students were expelled for allegedly taking part in a brawl in the stands at a football game at Eisenhower High School on Sept. 17. A seventh student was threatened with expulsion but withdrew from school first.

The three high schools in this blue-collar city were closed for security reasons Monday and Tuesday as Jackson led protests on behalf of the expelled students. The schools reopened Wednesday. No incidents were reported, but 41% of students stayed home.

The expelled students are all black, but Jackson has said fairness is more at issue than race.

On Tuesday, four people accused in the brawl were charged with mob action, a felony, which Jackson said will only worsen matters. The four included two of those who were expelled and the student who withdrew. The fourth was not a student at the time of the fight.

Five others were also charged as juveniles. It was unclear whether any of them were among those expelled.

Prosecutor Lawrence Fichter said he would be open to a deal. “What we start out with may not be what we end up with,” he said.

Lewis Myers Jr., an attorney for one of the students, said there will be no deal. “These charges are vindictive and brought solely to intimidate these young men and their families,” he said.

A videotape of the fight made by a spectator at Eisenhower’s game against MacArthur High shows a boy punching and kicking someone while someone else climbs into the stands from the track to join the melee.

Police said the tape catches only the last third of the fight.