Second caught-on-video fight roils Moreno Valley schools, weeks after fatal attack on 13-year-old

One week after a 13-year-old boy died from injuries suffered in a sucker-punch attack by two students at a Moreno Valley school, a new video has emerged showing a group of girls fighting at another campus roughly six miles away.

The fight broke out about 11:10 a.m. Wednesday at Sunnymead Middle School and was captured in a graphic video.

In the video, an altercation between two 12-year-old girls begins inside a classroom. One walks over to another. As a teacher tries to restrain the first girl, instructing another student to call the police, the girl breaks free and strikes the other girl. The two fall to the floor, hitting each other as students start screaming. The first girl pulls the other’s hair, while the teacher continues to try to intervene.

The video then breaks before picking up outside, where a security guard is seen trying to stop the continuing fight.

“One of the students sustained non-life-threatening injuries as a result of the altercation, and was not transported to a hospital,” the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. “The other student was determined the aggressor, and charges will be filed out of custody. We request that you contact the school for any administrative discipline on the students.”

One student involved in the fight told KTLA-TV Channel 5 that two of her former friends attacked her. She said she no longer wants to attend the school.

The fight occurred one week after a 13-year-old boy identified only as Diego died eight days after being attacked by two other boys.

A video posted to Facebook shows a boy punching Diego, who is then struck by a third person standing out of frame. Diego appears to hit his head on a concrete pillar as he falls to the ground. The assailant who threw the first punch strikes the boy again before running away.

Prosecutors filed voluntary manslaughter charges Monday against two 13-year-old boys who were arrested in connection with the assault. Investigators have been looking into reports that Diego had been bullied.

Several members of the school community have shared their own experiences of bullying, describing in interviews with The Times a school were fights have been a regular occurrence for years.

At a news conference Thursday, Supt. Martinrex Kedziora told the district community: “We are better than this.”

“I want the Moreno Valley community to hear me loud and hear me clear when I say that what I’ve seen and what we’ve all seen in those videos is absolutely unacceptable,” she said. “I want to assure you that the images and the videos you are seeing are not true representatives of the Moreno Valley Unified School District.”

Kedziora said that the school district has anti-bullying policies in place but is working to determine what reassessments might be made.