In the morning of Thursday, Nov. 9, tensions erupted during second chance breakfast leading to a fight breaking out between students. As a result, some staff had to intervene in order to keep the altercation to a minimum.
The exchange occurred after students were heard arguing with each other in the commons, soon the original conflict escalated into a physical form, and by the time faculty was able to break up the fight a crowd had already surrounded the area.
When giving insight on how the affray ensued, junior Marvin Kapfer recalled the general reaction of most of the students.
“We were just surprised, we couldn’t look away or walk to class,” Kapfer said. “It was so crowded and chaotic.”
The night before this altercation transpired, a fight took place in the community, leading to talk of what to do if there were further conflicts around the school among faculty. According to Corporal Kacey Wiltz, a school resource officer, it was decided that they would bring more police officers to the building in an attempt to create a safer environment.
“It’s unfortunate that we had to have six police officers here, because people won’t talk to each other, and can’t use those restorative practices to get to a solution besides fighting,” Wiltz said.
As a result of the conflict, the newly implemented second chance breakfast program was put on hold for Nov. 10 and Nov. 13. Assistant Principal Matt Renk gave a statement on why the school decided to make this brief change.
“Second chance breakfast was put on pause to help evaluate the [event] and continue to put processes in place to make it work more efficiently,” Renk noted.
Principal McAnarney expressed that going forward the school will likely keep second chance breakfast as an option for students, but will stagger the release times by hallways to avoid having so many people in one area.
“This way they can purchase their breakfast when there’s not so much congestion and a long line, ” McAnarney said. “So it’s likely that if this continues to work, we’ll keep it like this.”
