Student brawl at Hoover High brings Glendale police, school lockdown
A brawl between students at Hoover High School in Glendale on Wednesday resulted in the campus and two other nearby schools to be placed on lockdown and brought around two dozen police officers to the area.
The fight reportedly began around 1 p.m. near the Hoover’s upper-quad; authorities with the Glendale Unified School District said it’s unknown how many students were involved in the fracas. A video posted on social media showed the fight involved multiple students.
As of Friday, authorities said the cause of the incident was still being investigated. Kristine Nam, a Glendale Unified spokeswoman, said school officials will “take appropriate disciplinary measures, as needed.”
Nam also said district and Hoover officials are reviewing footage from the fight in addition to speaking to students and will have a meeting with parents at a later date.
Several students interviewed at the scene mentioned the fight was the result of simmering tensions between at least two different groups of students on campus.
Mary, a senior at Hoover who did not want her last name used, said the fight began between two students before it devolved into an all-out brawl.
“Little fights turned into big fights,” she said. “Everyone saw, and so everyone started throwing punches.”
The number of students involved in the fight was enough that officers from the Glendale Police Department were called in to stop it. The school, along with nearby Keppel Elementary and Toll Middle School, were placed on lockdown as a result.
Sports and after-school activities were also cancelled for the day, according to district officials.
Sgt. Dan Suttles, a spokesman for the police department, said officers spent the afternoon interviewing students to determine who was involved and how the fight began.
Students at the high school were released on a staggered schedule, with classes being dismissed one at a time. The gradual release was done as a precautionary measure, according to Suttles.
“Imagine if we just let the kids out all at once with some tempers still flaring,” he said.
Glendale Unified Supt. Winfred Roberson Jr. was on hand at Hoover High after police arrived in order to assure parents that no one was seriously injured during the melee and that they could pick up their child on the Olmstead Drive side of campus. He also mentioned weapons were not involved.
“While there was a fight, there were no significant injuries, no stabs … nothing like that,” he said.
Lissette Uribe and her husband, Elias, were waiting on Olmstead Drive for Lissette’s brother, who is a freshman at the school, to be released. They were there with several dozen other worried parents and guardians.
Elias Uribe said they live just down the block from the school and first became aware of the fight after they heard the police cars heading to the school, along with the department’s helicopter. Then they saw the department’s post on Twitter describing a disturbance at Hoover.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, what’s going on? Was there a shooting? What happened?’” Lissette Uribe said. “At that moment, nobody knew [what was happening], just that tweet.”
She said her brother was able to text her, saying he was OK, but that it would take several hours for him to be released.
The pair said they were alumni of Hoover High and had seen fights at the school before, but nothing as “heated” as it was on Wednesday.
Twitter: @Andy_Truc
UPDATES:
Oct. 5, 3:35 p.m.: This article was updated with new comments from a GUSD spokeswoman.
Oct. 3, 6:50 p.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from several people at the scene including police and GUSD officials.
Oct. 3, 3:10 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information from Glendale Unified School District officials.
This article was originally published on Oct. 3, 2018 at 1:25 p.m.
