The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
A simmering neighborhood dispute boiled over into a brawl at Granby High School on Thursday, resulting in 15 arrests - including 12 female students - and the cancellation of homecoming festivities today, but not the football game.
It took some two dozen police and school security personnel to quell various fights, some using pepper or chemical spray, said Master Police Officer Chris Amos, a department spokesman. He and a school division spokeswoman said no injuries were reported, and Amos said no weapons were found.
"There's nothing that indicates this has to do with gangs," Amos said.
Jennifer Francis, schools spokeswoman, said in e-mails that school officials had been trying to mediate in-house a growing disagreement that some students had been having outside of school for the past week or two. Francis said she didn't know what the disagreement was about.
Shortly before 11 a.m. Thursday, two girls "were involved in a conflict" during lunch, Francis said. Security staff separated them and called parents to pick up the girls. While in the school's foyer with their parents, the girls began fighting, Francis said.
Other scuffles broke out, soon involving 20 students and at least one parent. Administrators locked down the school and called police. The first arriving officers asked for backup, which included K-9 and anti-gang units, Amos said.
At least one officer and some security personnel sprayed students to help subdue them, Amos said.
Later Thursday, juvenile criminal petitions charging disorderly conduct in a school were being prepared against 14 students - 12 girls and two boys, Amos said.
The 14 were suspended pending further administrative action, Francis said.
One parent was being charged with assaulting a juvenile, Amos said.
As a precaution against further related incidents, school administrators cance led today's homecoming pep rally and dance. The game against Wilson was to go on as scheduled.
Matthew Bowers, (757) 222-3893, matthew.bowers@pilotonline.com
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Seems obvious
The administration called their parents to come get their kids. The fight started with the parents present. A parent even participated. And people want to blame the school? Don't be so quick to assume gangs, people. I have seen teen fights start over stuffed animals and people smacking their lips. Even you folks stuck in the 70's can think back and remember that fights often start over petty matter.s
Granby fight
Adults have to quit trying to lowering themselves to the kids level by being their buddys. The adults and teachers have to remember their in charge and there are rules to be followed. You do the crime you do the time no if ands or butts. Too much kumbaya attitude it needs to stop and get back to reality.
61
Wonder how many of those children who have never caused any problems and are great students were arrested? How many are getting 61's? Somehow I suspect they are connected....and oh, aren't gangs usually neighborhood based? Who's BSing who here? The School administration is trying to tell me that over a dozen female students get involved in a fight and it's not gang related. Who were the school admin "negotiating with" if it wasn't an "organized group"? This is getting so confusing....
Make Girls pugilism a varsity sport.
It's all Jerry Springer's fault.
My children are long
My children are long graduated but I am curious, is there no longer ISS in the schools? When one of my boys got into trouble at school, I marched him into the vice principal's office and requested ISS for him. I also told them that I would gladly sign a waiver if they wanted him to spend the time in ISS cleaning toilets or something. Of course, they told me that they couldn't do that :) . However, my son knew that I was dead serious about the inappropriateness of his behavior...and I didn't care that he didn't start the fight either. Sadly, if parents aren't on board with teachers and administrators, everyone loses, especially the children. And at the risk of stirring the MacMall issue again, just reading some of the ranting from parents about their children's "right to hang at the mall", it's no wonder they behave as they do in school...they want all of the rights and none of the responsibilities. What a rude awakening real life is going to be.
Who What When Where How and WHYYYYYYYYY
WHY did this happen?
Am I remembering correctly?
Didn't a teacher get punched by a student last year at Granby High School? Didn't the parent of that student lie and say it was one of her other children that actually punched the teacher? If I am remembering correctly, the parent was dropping off the kid and the teacher honked the horn of her car - the student came to the teacher's car window and punched her (?)...It all starts at home. People should be required to be licensed to have children - only after they've completed mandatory parent training should they get their license and then are required to take refresher courses throughout the child's life until the child becomes an adult. No license- no kid. We have to stop popping kids out like a pez dispenser and leave them to society to raise them properly. Just feeding, clothing and housing them isn't enough - you have to teach them how to behave appropriately - but the parents haven't been taught how to behave appropriately so how can they teach their kid?
license idea
I loved your idea about being licensed to have children. There are way too many young people especially, that pop children out left and right for a variety of reasons. I liked the idea that people should have a license but I can't fathom how that could be controlled. I think parenthood education should be much more enforced for every young child, so they know what life is really like. There should be a mandatory semester course in reality instead of a lot of useless information that will never be used when people get out of school. Most kids probably don't get any of the "real facts of life" from home and that is why the world is as we know it. I am a person raising someone else's child because they couldn't do it without neglecting the basic needs of this child. Too bad there are many more parents like this one, and where did they learn it?
I think it was '06 or '07
It was a couple of years ago, actually...I wonder what ever happened in that case?
I agree with you completely - it makes no sense that we require licenses to drive, own guns, practice law or medicine or accounting, or even handle food at the local Mickey D's, but any fool with working reproductive organs can have kids. You don't even have to raise them, because the schools and the government and TV will do it for you until it's time to hand them over to the correctional system.
Granby's comet has crashed
My how the reputation of Granby has fallen. I can remember a time when there was pride in attending Granby and envy among other Norfolk high school students that didn't go there !!!!