School fight locks down Vicksburg HighParents want action after third brawl in weeks, 9 arrests

Published 11:30 am Wednesday, March 21, 2012

After the third fight at Vicksburg High School in two weeks resulted in the lockdown of the school and the arrest of nine students Tuesday, parents have begun to call for tougher discipline by the school’s administrators, metal detectors at front and back entrances and more oversight of people entering the school.

“This is a sad situation,” said Lynda Jackson, mother of one student and aunt of another. “This goes on here all the time. It’s getting worse, and the principal does nothing about it.”

“You’re almost afraid to send your children up here,” said Virginia Johnson, who has four grandchildren attending VHS.

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“All I can tell you is, it’s got to stop,” North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said outside the school off Drummond and Lee streets. He said he had left a meeting to wait outside the school with parents and others. “If it doesn’t stop, and I mean stop today, you’re going to be carrying body bags out of that school.”

VHS, which has 1,077 students, was locked down for about an hour after the fight broke out about 10:30 a.m. Initial reports were that as many as 50 students were brawling, said police Capt. Bobby Stewart. The number had diminished by the time police arrived.

Jackson and Johnson were among about two dozen parents, grandparents and other relatives of VHS students who showed up in a steady stream to check on students or take them home, but were not allowed inside. Students also were not allowed to be dismissed.

Most gathered outside the school on the Drummond Street side said they had been sent a text message by students telling them of the fighting, and rumors of weapon use and bloodshed were rampant.

Stewart said no weapons were involved or recovered, and no one was injured.

Six girls and three boys were charged, said Dr. Elizabeth Swinford, superintendent of the Vicksburg Warren School District.

“The girls were really the ones doing the fighting but the boys were egging them on so we had them all arrested,” said Swinford, reached by phone as she was returning from meetings in Jackson.

The students, 15 to 18 years old, were charged with disorderly conduct by fighting, a misdemeanor, said Stewart. Those younger than 18 were taken to the Juvenile Detention Center, while the one 18-year-old was booked at the Vicksburg Police Department and released on a $648 bond.

A coach was hit when she tried to step in and stop the fight, said Swinford, but she did not require medical attention.

Another fight that broke out later in the cafeteria during lunch was not related to the first and was handled by school personnel, Swinford said.

The school has one resource, or security, officer, assigned by the district.

Stewart called Tuesday’s melee “a spillover” from a fight outside the Wilcox Theaters at Vicksburg Mall Saturday night. At that fight, five boys, ages 13 to 18, and one girl, 15, were charged with disorderly conduct by fighting, he said.

Stewart confirmed reports that some students are involved in a gang called Smash, but said officials do not believe it to be a serious issue for the school or city.

“It’s supposedly a group of kids who want to be known as a gang, but it’s more a group of wannabe thugs,” Stewart said. “They are not affiliated with any known gang and we don’t really consider it a serious gang at all.”

None of the students charged Saturday and Tuesday were involved in the fights at VHS March 5 and March 9, before last week’s spring vacation, the captain said.

Six were arrested in the March 5 brawl, which took place just as school was being released, and one student was restrained March 9. Pepper spray was used by a school resource officer in both instances.

“I think we just have a small group of individuals who want to create havoc and disrupt school,” Stewart said. “I think when they find out what happens when they do this kind of thing, they won’t want to do it again.”

Stewart said the juveniles must appear before Youth Court Judge Johnny Price, who can sentence them to probation, counseling or even training school, depending on their criminal records.

Jackson said fighting is an ongoing problem and said she’d like to see metal detectors used at both the east and west entrances of VHS. She said she is working with Mayfield to hold a rally at City Park for parents, teachers and others concerned with security and leadership at VHS and has filed the required paperwork to get on the agenda of the Vicksburg Warren School District Board of Trustees at their March 29 board meeting.

VHS principal Derrick Reed, who reportedly was across Drummond Street at Vicksburg Memorial Stadium attending the Special Olympics competition, drove up to the VHS main entrance about midway through the lockdown, about 30 minutes after the initial call to police, and asked the security guard, “What’s going on?”

An employee in Reed’s office said he was not available once the lockdown ended, and a photographer and reporter with The Vicksburg Post were told to leave the school. Reed could not be reached later and did not return a telephone message.

Jackson said she and other parents tried to speak with Reed following the lockdown but he was not available.

“It’s not that there is bad leadership,” said Matt DeRossette, parent of a sophomore girl. “It’s that there is no leadership.”

Swinford said Reed and the assistant principals at VHS have her full support.

“I don’t have any concerns about the administration there,” she said, adding that the recent fights all began in neighborhoods. “If the community knows there is a problem why are they not informing us? No one can solve a problem if they are not aware it exists.”