Jersey City police today responded to a large disturbance at Ferris High School in which students were throwing desks, chairs, food, bottles, cans, garbage cans, and book bags at students, staff, security guards and cops, officials said.
One 16-year-old boy was charged with assaulting a police detective during the incident at the Downtown school that required a response from all "available units citywide" in order to "disperse over 350 to 500 unruly students," reports said.
Security guards and school police officers at the Montgomery Street school were called to the cafeteria shortly after noon where they found students throwing food, chairs, and overturning tables, reports said.
Additional police officers were called to the school to help clear the cafeteria, but fighting then broke out first in the main lobby and then "all over the school" and more radio cars were called to the scene, reports said.
Students who were outside the school "violently pushed their way inside" to join the fighting and began assaulting numerous people and throwing all manner of objects at each other and at the adults, reports said.
That's when a 17-year-old was seen pushing a security guard. The teen was tackled by police and handcuffed after a struggle, reports said, adding that the guard later declined to press charges. A 16-year-old student was arrested and charged with aggravated assault on a police detective, reports said.
A school security guard suffered a lower back injury when he was assaulted by multiple students, and a second guard said she suffered several injuries at the hands of a group of students who ran away, reports said.
Superintendent of Schools Charles T. Epps Jr. said the disturbance began when one student threw bread at another in the lunchroom. "With that, someone got annoyed, picked up a chair, and threw a chair," Epps said.
"It was just a handful of kids (involved in the dispute)," Epps insisted.
...
Police reports note earlier in the day there was a fight, which may have provoked the cafeteria incident and Board of Education President William DeRosa said tonight the district is investigating the possibility that the fight that precipitated the melee was "gang-related."
"It did sound very serious," DeRosa about today's fracas. "This is going to have to be halted...We need to instill in our students ... that there are better ways to resolve things."
Hey, I know what would make this better.
Fire some teachers.
Really make a statement, you know?
How dare those teachers allow this to happen to "the children"?
POSTSCRIPT: The superintendent is moron - since when is "350 to 500 unruly students" fighting "all over the school" just a "handful of kids"?
I have an idea. Take add another Facebook 100 mil and divide it amongst the 500 unruly students. That ought keep em under control - for a while at least.
ReplyDeleteThis school isn't too far from where I live. Actually former Ed Commissioner Bret Schundler also lives right near it - in a brownstone. There are many fancy new condos and apts in this area of Jersey City. And yet, there are still the projects and the children from the projects still go to these schools and so you sometimes get a fight with 500 students and a city-wide All Alert for the cops to respond.
ReplyDeleteObviously the conditions that led to that fight were NOT the fault of teachers. There are serious issues that underlie that kind of riot. And yet, in our reductionist ed reform climate, it is ALWAYS the fault of teachers. Because if it isn't, then you'd have to look at other things - like the parents, the politicians, the business community, capitalism, etc.