Show of support for Palmdale students

Los Angeles County prosecutors should not pursue charges against three black students at Knight High School in Palmdale who were involved in a scuffle with a white security guard or against a mother who also faces charges related to the incident, activists said Thursday.

About 50 demonstrators, including local and national community activists, parents of area high school students, and nearby residents, gathered at the Michael D. Antonovich Antelope Valley Courthouse. Some held up posters bearing statements such as “No Justice, No Peace,” and “Our Children Are Not Criminals.”

“We are saying today . . . that in the spirit of Martin Luther King, we are not backing down,” said Charles Steele, president and chief executive of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a national civil rights group. Steele came from Atlanta, where the group is headquartered, to participate in Thursday’s event.

The demonstration stemmed from a Sept. 18 incident in which Knight student Pleajhai Mervin, 16, dropped pieces of a birthday cake in the school’s lunch area. She allegedly failed to clean up the mess to the satisfaction of security officer Chris Niemeyer. A scuffle ensued in which her mother, LaTrisha Majors, said that Mervin’s wrist was injured. A 14-year-old student, who videotaped the incident, also tangled with the guard after he failed to hand over the camera. The boy’s 16-year-old sister intervened to try and help him.

The students were booked on suspicion of battery and were suspended. Majors said she faced battery charges for allegedly assaulting a school official while at Knight checking on her daughter that day.

For some parents, students and activists, the incident raised concerns about the treatment of black students and racial injustice. For others, including students and school officials, the incident had nothing to do with race and resulted from poor behavior by the three teenagers.

Niemeyer was placed on paid administrative leave pending the findings of an independent investigator. He has declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.

Many supporters have defended Niemeyer’s actions and praised him as a respectable and professional guard. They have described the cake incident as an out-of-control food fight.

Steele and Najee Ali, a Los Angeles-area community activist, led a small group to the L.A. County district attorney’s office inside the courthouse to deliver a letter requesting that his agency “drop all charges against the Palmdale 4,” and “criminally charge Chris Niemeyer for his attack on these children.”

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, received the letter and said “the whole incident is under review by our offices.”

Gibbons said the 14-year-old has been charged with one count of threatening a public officer and one count of making criminal threats, which are felonies, in addition to one count of disturbing the peace, a misdemeanor. Charges have not been filed against Majors and the other two students, Gibbons said.

Palmdale officials scheduled a meeting Thursday night with community leaders and area stakeholders to craft a statement from the city to outside organizations “proclaiming that the incident at Knight High School is a community issue that will be handled locally.”

ann.simmons@latimes.com