Fights at two Riverside high schools have raised concern among parents, who told the school board they’re worried about their children’s safety.
Two videos showing fights at Martin Luther King High School were spread on social media this week. The student who parents allege instigated both fights will no longer be attending King, a Thursday, April 27, news release from the Riverside Unified School District states.
Meanwhile, across town at Ramona High School, an 18-year-old male student and his 14-year-old sister were involved in an altercation with a school resource officer Wednesday, according to a Riverside Police Department statement. While an officer was dealing with “student unrest” during lunch, the 18-year-old’s sister “attacked the officer,” police reported.
The 18-year-old was booked into jail on suspicion of resisting arrest, and the 14-year-old was booked into a Riverside County juvenile detention facility on suspicion of violence against a peace officer, the statement said.
Superintendent Renee Hill briefly addressed the fights at Thursday’s school board meeting, reading parts of the statements from the district and from police.
“I want to emphasize that student and staff safety and wellbeing is a top priority for the board and in the district,” Hill said. “We respond to each event. We have and we will increase the number of campus supervisors.”
Many speakers addressed the board about the King High fights captured on video and the student they accused of instigating them.
Several said the male student identifies as transgender, and complained about the student’s use of women’s restrooms on campus, though district officials would not discuss or confirm whether the fights were related to that issue.
“I don’t believe that a male identifying as a female should be allowed in the women’s restroom, or the lockers room,” Mariah Borquez, who said her daughter is one of the students bullied, told the board.
Police spokesperson Ryan Railsback said he did not know the gender with which the student in question identifies.
“None of that matters,” he said. “None of them should have fought.”
Railsback said that there has been an increase in fights since the coronavirus pandemic — on and off school campuses.
Riverside Unified’s policies state, in part, that while the district maintains “sex-segregated facilities,” that “students shall be permitted to access facilities and participate in programs and activities consistent with their gender identity.”
Sal Flores, who has two daughters at King High, said that, in August, the student seen in the videos threw a metal water bottle at his daughter and an icepack that hit her in the face. He said his daughter declined to press charges because she was worried about retaliation from other students.
Lori Lopez said that Thursday’s meeting was the fourth time she’d come to talk about “safety on school campuses.”
“The circumstances of these altercations remain truly unknown to most, but what is known is there has been an increase in violence on school campuses,” Lopez told the board.
She asked why the district didn’t act sooner.
“Whether they’re males or females, when (students) repeatedly engage in violent acts, what is the threshold to remove them from campus?” she asked.
Railsback said it’s a “very small percentage” of students who cause problems.
“These schools really are safe,” he said.
