Our Troubled High Schools: Gang-Banging The Indy Way

The plague of student juvenile gangs continues to infest many of our public schools, with the latest incident occurring in, of all places, an Indianapolis high school:

Seven North Central High School students face gang-related charges after a fight in the school cafeteria resulted in their arrests Thursday.

According to police reports, Special Deputy Thaddeus Jones of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department noticed two large groups of males yelling "north side" and "east side" and throwing gang signs near the school cafeteria at 7:20 a.m.

Jones and Assistant Principal Will Tyler attempted to separate the students when a 16-year-old student tackled a 17-year-old student, igniting a brawl that spilled into the cafeteria.

During the fight, science teacher Martin Keltey attempted to restrain student Devin Finney, 18, and was struck by a knee from one of the fight participants, a report said. North Central Principal CE Quandt said Keltey might have suffered a scrape during the incident but was otherwise fine.

The two who started the fight stopped only after Jones threatened them with pepper spray.

Quandt said no students were injured during the fight.

He was reluctant to call the incident a gang fight but said the police told him that some of the students had gang affiliations.

"Those allegations are being made by the police, not the high school," he said. "We're not prosecutors; we're educators."

Quandt said he had spoken to the parents of some of the arrested students and said they were disappointed in their children's actions but didn't believe they were involved in gangs.

Quandt said he doesn't believe North Central has a gang problem but said the school knows that some students are purported to be members of gangs.

"When you walk around school, you don't see kids throwing gang signs or wearing the clothes. . . . We don't allow it," he said.

IMPD Sgt. Paul Thompson said Jones' report was vague regarding the possible gang affiliations, and the Metro Gang Task Force hadn't been notified of the incident. Thompson said the task force hoped to talk to Jones on Monday.

Raphael Alberto, 19, Finney and four juvenile students were charged with criminal gang activity, battery with injury and disorderly conduct. Another student was charged with criminal gang activity, battery on a school official, battery and disorderly conduct.

All seven were taken to the Arrestee Processing Center. Because the juveniles were charged with criminal gang activity, they were held at the Marion County Jail with the two adults. They have since been released.

At least three others were involved in the fight, authorities said, but managed to leave the scene before they were identified or arrested.
Quandt said a video camera in the cafeteria was not working when the altercation took place.

Michal Sunderman, whose granddaughter attends North Central, said she was concerned about the incident and has seen what she believes to be gang activity near the school. But she said she doesn't fear for her granddaughter's safety.

"It's not surprising that there are gangs here," she said outside the school Friday. "It's sad, really."

Indeed, it is sad "that there are gangs here" in our nation's public schools.

Sadder still, Principal Quandt seems to be "in denial" about the problem within his school's student population.

One gang fight is one too many.

In order to maximize their learning potential, students must feel safe.

Therefore, schools must be the one place in our students' lives where they do feel absolutely safe and protected.

Any students individuals who engage in violence (or even threats of violence) towards other students (or school employees) need to be removed from the general school population.