More on that big fight at Page

It WAS gang-related.

So say students at Page High School, who told their version of events to this week’s Rhino Times about that big cafeteria fight a couple of weeks ago.

And this story just gets worse, folks.

First excerpt:

Students at Page High School say the fight that broke out during lunch on Thursday, Oct. 25 was planned and gang related, whereas the Greensboro Police Department, including Page’s school resource officer (SRO) say those allegations are untrue.

Eleven students have been arrested and charged with various crimes as a result of the fight.

I find it incredulous that GPD and GCS want to treat this as something less than what it is. Read on:

One student said the fight was premeditated and was between rival gangs over a gold chain that was stolen. The gangs, the student said, are newly formed local gangs. One is called the Banner Squad. The student also said the rumor was that a member of one of the gangs was to shoot to kill a member of the other gang because of the gold chain.

“There were gang signs being flashed,” the Page student said, who also was pepper sprayed by police. “The fight was with the Banner Squad. They have only been around for two weeks and they are real big already.”

The student said he has been approached by gang members at Page, who have tried to get him to join. The student said he is aware that there are Crips, Bloods, Latin Kings, Folk Nation and Vice Kings gangs at Page.

When approached by the Crips, the student said he was asked, “Do you bang?” meaning gang bang.

Sorry, but that sounds like obvious gang activity to me. Who’s asleep at the wheel now?

There’s more:

The student said he doesn’t always feel safe in school and that Page administration is “not careful enough.”

“They don’t check anything,” the student said. “Every day there is a weapon brought into the school. People take them out and wave them around on the football field, behind the field. They don’t care if students smoke weed or wave weapons around. Coaches are pretty good about it, but they can’t do anything.”

This student is brave and candid about what’s going on at Page. This should be enough for every parent to express outrage at the situation of all of our schools.

But wait, there’s more:

School board member Garth Hebert, who noted there was a much smaller gang fight at Southwest High School Thursday, Sept. 27, said it’s time to look at stricter punishment.

Hebert said at Southwest that two Latin King members jumped a former gang member in front of the principal’s office.

“They got 10 days of suspension,” Hebert said.

Hebert said he is in favor of Guilford County Schools using expulsion to show gang members that the school system is not going to tolerate this behavior anymore. Guilford County Schools has not expelled a student since 2000. The school system, however, registered 91 long-term suspensions in 2006-2007.

GCS has not expelled a student since 2000…wow. Ten days for fighting in front of the principal’s office. Outrageous.

More:

School board member Kris Cooke, whose district includes Page, said she thought a fight that big and disruptive during the school day was unacceptable.

“That type of activity cannot occur in a school,” Cooke said. “It is a learning environment, for students who want to learn. There has to be consequences. It has to be a safe learning environment.”

Speaking of being asleep at the wheel…she has no clue what’s going on in her school in her district…will someone PLEASE run against her next year? Someone…anyone.

Thank GOD for the Rhino Times, for digging down deep and giving us the real story about what happened, instead of the drive-by media drivel from GCS. This investigative article is a complete damnation of what’s going on in our schools, and if someone doesn’t start waking up downtown, we’re going to have a big mess on our hands.

This has got to stop, folks.

E.C. 🙂