Dec 15, 2007 8:32 pm US/Eastern
Mayor, City Schools CEO React After School Fight
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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City school police evacuated New Era Academy and Southside Academy right around lunchtime Thursday after a bomb threat.
At least two students are under arrest after a brawl between dozens of city students Thursday.
Gigi Barnett reports why school leaders have a special challenge for parents.
City school police evacuated New Era Academy and Southside Academy right around lunchtime Thursday after a bomb threat. Once on the schools' football field, students from the schools began punching and striking each other.
School police had to use mace and force to break up the brawl and restore order. Rescue crews rushed one student to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Now at least two students are under arrest, and the fight is under investigation.
"We will do everything in our power to make sure they're safe and that the environment is safe for their children," Mayor Sheila Dixon said.
But city and school leaders say this kind of violence on campus can be prevented if parents would help by teaching teens responsibility at home.
"My advice is that the parents come to school, that they become part of the conversation about what happened in that field, and that regardless of how did it start, that the conversation becomes about how it is unacceptable," said Dr. Andres Alonso, Baltimore City Schools CEO.
So school leaders are inviting parents to a meeting next week to start that talk.
"Part of what we're struggling with on a daily basis is the parents' and guardians' role and their responsibility of their young people in school. I would hope that those parents of those students of that school, New Era as well as Southside would come and get more involved in the school," said Dixon.
But after Thursday's melee, some parents are already choosing new schools for their teens.
"He has a bruise on the side of his head. I'm going to take him to the emergency room. My daughters, they're all upset, and their eyes are burning," said one parent.
"It's not about finding fault, it's about responsibility. If that doesn't happen, we're going to continue to have this conversation," said Alonso.
Police arrested two students. One of them was charged with disorderly conduct and the other was charged with resisting arrest.
Both schools, New Era and Southside, are housed in the same building.
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