Fight Breaks out at Houston H.S. between Houston Students and new N.O. Students

[RobSoVIP]

So it finally happened... I knew it would. A big fight erupted at a Houston H.S. (Jones High School) between students from Houston and New Orleans. There has been an influx of students from Lousiana at almost all area schools. I doubt that this will be the last of the Houston / New Orleans altercations that we hear about. This fight ended with students going to both Jail and the Hospital.

To make matters worse, a fight erupted between Houston and New Orleans parents while picking up their kids from school, which resulted in one mother being arrested.

There are ALOT of new people entering the Houston communities, and alot of new students entering the surrounding school systems. How do the school oficials stop this?


On another note- The high school that I attended recieved quite a few new kids, and from what I hear from family friends with kids attending the school, our Football coach is PUMPED- supposedly we got some FAST and STRONG kids that we weren't expecting, lol.

Fight breaks out between students from Houston and New Orleans
By JENNIFER RADCLIFFE
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
SEE IT NOW
A fight between Houston and Louisiana students sent three to the hospital.


• Photo gallery
• Video
Courtesy of KHOU-TV

Five students were arrested and three were hospitalized after a fight erupted at Jones High School this morning between teenagers from Houston and New Orleans - prompting Houston Independent School District leaders to say they will increase police presence at the campus.


A student from New Orleans was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital for facial injuries and two Houston students - one of whom was a girl - were treated for face and rib injuries.

Two of the arrested students - 15- and 16-year-old boys - were from New Orleans. The other three boys - two 17-year-olds and an 18-year-old - were from Houston. All five were charged by HISD police with disruption of school activities, a Class C misdemeanor.

HISD will not stand for these types of fights, spokesman Terry Abbott said.

"The quickest way to earn a ticket out of Jones High School and into detention is to hurt one of those students from New Orleans," Abbott said. "They've made it very clear to the Jones High School students that the children from New Orleans are our guests. We must treat them with all the dignity and respect we can.''

New Orleans students are also being reminded that they must follow the rules, he said.

About 200 evacuees, many of whom are bused from Reliant Center, attend Jones High School.

The fight broke out at 8:15 a.m., when students were arriving by bus. A Jones High School student tossed a soft drink can into a group of New Orleans students, Abbott said.

About 20 to 25 students were involved in the altercation.

All of the students who were arrested will be placed at alternative sites, Abbott said.

[GFerg]

Jeez....Will it ever stop?? This is just horrible.

[BlkGS3]

when i was in H.S. there was a fight between kids from Down Town Schools that were tossed over to our Valley campus. It was fun to see the principle get knocked the hell out. Security guards, deans, and other faculty went home with black eyes. Not a huge fan of fights, but that rumble was fun to watch

[Lil4X]

Hey, that's my old High School - I graduated there just after the ice melted and the continents divided. I think we played Pangea in the state playoffs that year . . .

Jones HS, once a model academic school - to the exclusion of athletics or even fun - has changed pretty dramatically over the years. We had a fair football team, a mediocre basketball team, and ONE school dance - the senior prom. And that was pushing things for our straight-laced principal. He's gone now to his great reward where he's wearing sleeve garters, a green eyeshade, and wields a quill pen with a vengeance. Somewhere, some junior demon is getting a mark in his permanent record . . . Well, he ought to be happy, they named an elementary school after him.

Today Jones is a typical "inner city" school, meaning the administration and teachers have thrown in the towel and just try to survive until next summer. Typical of many public schools they are totally failing to teach kids basic academics, let alone life skills or simply getting along with others. I heard one of the kid's reason for getting into a fight today on the news was the Ebonic-equivalent of "he disrespected me".

These kids are all about false pride. It doesn't matter if they're from Houston schools or New Orleans schools - some are trying to stake out their territory rather than learn to be anything but another thug. Yes, I saw that ad in the paper yesterday, "Now Hiring: Thugs with attitude!" It doesn't matter - if you were born with a brain, or at least the majority of one, you can learn job skills, a trade, or a profession. You can get and hold a good job, and if you are willing to continue learning, become successful one day.

Demanding respect and dispensing beatings on the schoolyard is not limited to Houston's inner-city schools. My elderly step-mother had to retire from teaching in a small town in northwestern Kansas because the gang activity was not being addressed by school administrators. When Mayberry starts the day with gunfire on the schoolgrounds . . . . you might say it's time to leave.

OR you can wade in and take control, put these little punks back in their seats, or cut them loose and let the penal system deal with them. Unfortunately, the bright, motivated students are being seriously short-changed by our school system. A few young thugs are wrecking the learning environment. Let's shut them down. These kids deserve better, and we owe them a safe environment where they can learn and grow.

[RobSoVIP]

so you went to Jones Lil? What part of town is Jones in? I moved out of Houston when I was 8 down to Kemah and attended Clear Creek (a little more recent than the ice age, but still feels like a century ago! ) I would have gone to Eisenhower if we would have stayed in our area of town (more than likely would have gone to St. Thomas or Strake)

[Lil4X]

I was a member of Jesse H. Jones' first graduating class - our shop classes consisted of "wheel" and "fire". (rimshot)

Jones is located just west of South Park (now MLK), a few blocks north of Belfort. I was slated to go to Austin High, but Jones opened just a semester before at mid-term and I was in the first class to graduate from Jones's full three-year program.

Clear Creek, as I recall always had a reputation for being one of the finest public HS in the state, both academically and athletically. Back then it was one of the "super schools" along with Bellaire HS, with something over 3000 students. Boy did they kill us in the UIL! I think Katy HS is that size or even larger today. - Would you believe they have not just an indoor Olympic pool, but a full indoor Olympic diving pool as well? . . . and they're a PUBLIC school!

Strake Jesuit and St. Thomas were and still are outstanding private college-prep schools. Two of my three college roommates at UT graduated from St. Thomas, and to prove how good those schools were, Rick and George could have skipped their entire freshman year. Well, to be honest, Rick and I partied the year away - and paid for it in our sophomore year. Rick eventually flunked out, and I very nearly graduated on scholastic probation. Once I decided to stop chasing the ladies and drink the beer taps dry, I opened the books and managed to hang in there even though I had to hold down two or three jobs at a time to finance my little adventure in academe'. . .

George meanwhile stuck his head in the books from day one and completed his Masters before I could even wrestle the Dean to the ground and steal my BS. He had his choice of scholarships for his PhD - Vanderbilt, London School of Economics - but went to Oregon, where they not only offered a full scholarship; they made him a teaching assistant, paying HIM to go to school. (I always accused him of getting into Economics because he was CHEAP!)

You had the benefit of a great HS education - hope you made better use of it than I did!

[NAZTY97]

Lil4X is true old school!!!! - snoop-a-loop!

It kinda explains some of your insight, which I think is awesome

I've always heard of Jones, as some of my college buddies graduated from there,... other schools I've heard a lot of are Smiley, Booker T., Elsik, Cy-Fair, Willowridge, and Yates. Some of those schools sounded more like prisons with books....

[nthach]

Originally Posted by Lil4X

Hey, that's my old High School -Typical of many public schools they are totally failing to teach kids basic academics, let alone life skills or simply getting along with others. I heard one of the kid's reason for getting into a fight today on the news was the Ebonic-equivalent of "he disrespected me".


OR you can wade in and take control, put these little punks back in their seats, or cut them loose and let the penal system deal with them. Unfortunately, the bright, motivated students are being seriously short-changed by our school system. A few young thugs are wrecking the learning environment. Let's shut them down. These kids deserve better, and we owe them a safe environment where they can learn and grow.

i couldn't agree with these statements more. I was a product of a bad school system in Cali that let these kids remain unchecked. I've seen my share of fights break out, and the administration doesn't do anything about it. It was an anarchy of sorts. Heck, last year, some kid got beat up in the bathroom by some kid who wasn't supposed to be there, and the video spread over MySpace like wildfire. Luckliy, the kid and the city pressed charges. But it won't be long until he does it again.

[bitkahuna]

Originally Posted by nthach

I was a product of a bad school system in Cali that let these kids remain unchecked. I've seen my share of fights break out, and the administration doesn't do anything about it. It was an anarchy of sorts. Heck, last year, some kid got beat up in the bathroom by some kid who wasn't supposed to be there, and the video spread over MySpace like wildfire. Luckliy, the kid and the city pressed charges. But it won't be long until he does it again.

The schools, who rarely strive for excellence anyway, are in a bind, because the flower power parents of the kids think they should be able to do anything, that discipline is a dirty word, that the system is always evil, that their 'precious' shouldn't be subject to being put into place because they've got 'rights' too.

The schools also fear being sued by parents, with judges who grew up in the 60s too supporting them.

Kids are in school to LEARN, to become RESPONSIBLE, to RESPECT OTHERS, and to have some fun. They're not there to pass time, allow their parents to spend endless hours at the office or other pursuits, to cause trouble, or to do whatever they feel like because they feel like it, or to lead gangs or make power plays or intimidate others. Bullying or intimidation of any kind should not be tolerated.

Money alone is not the problem. Attitude, responsibility and accountability are almost all the problem.

[RobSoVIP]

How funny is it that Lil (the conservative) went to Texas' liberal school UT, and I (the liberal) went to Texas' Conservative school Texas A&M! Its a shame that we will have to beat the snot out of UT at Kyle field this year a day after Thanksgiving!

[mmarshall]

Originally Posted by sc400texas

So it finally happened... I knew it would. A big fight erupted at a Houston H.S. (Jones High School) between students from Houston and New Orleans.
To make matters worse, a fight erupted between Houston and New Orleans parents while picking up their kids from school, which resulted in one mother being arrested.

.

Fights generally don't just break out for nothing....although that sometimes happens when people get drunk.
There has to be a reason WHY these fights broke out. Someone....or one group......did something that apparantly angered the other group. So....let the authorities there find out WHAT that something was and, if possible, take steps to insure that that does not happen again. Otherwise, it will just keep happening.
It's easy to say "Oh, yeah, that's terrible....lock 'em up". And indeed, assault and battery is a crime. Some may deserve to be locked up. But WHY did that group start swinging? If they had some kind of a grievance and no one was listening, there is little excuse for that. Sometimes actions speak louder than words.

[RobSoVIP]

Originally Posted by mmarshall

Fights generally don't just break out for nothing....although that sometimes happens when people get drunk.
There has to be a reason WHY these fights broke out. Someone....or one group......did something that apparantly angered the other group. So....let the authorities there find out WHAT that something was and, if possible, take steps to insure that that does not happen again. Otherwise, it will just keep happening.
It's easy to say "Oh, yeah, that's terrible....lock 'em up". And indeed, assault and battery is a crime. Some may deserve to be locked up. But WHY did that group start swinging? If they had some kind of a grievance and no one was listening, there is little excuse for that. Sometimes actions speak louder than words.

It happened becuase there are alot of new people in alot of new places, combine that with pride, egos, attitudes, and immaturity among younger men- and BAM. Some words are exchanged between groups... next thing you know the situation ignites. Evidently this fight started because somebody in the group of Houston students threw a coke into a large group of NO students.

Another note- I heard recently that the FBI gang controll unit has been in Houston for over a week now, fearing that major players in the gang world of NO now reside in Houston, and some in the law enforcement industry are trying to stop any clashes that may occur from the influx of new people.

[1SICKLEX]

I know a couple cats from the projects in N.O. Sadly, these guys are no joke. I got word, many have come to Atlanta and looking to basically move in on territory here.

There will be violence in all major cities these guys move to.

No joke, safety off. These guys are moving to new towns with NOTHING to LOSE.

[mmarshall]

So then, it appears to be more or less gang and turf wars. OK...that at least explains it. The article gave no clue as to what the reason was. So then the answer is obvious......make these guys and gals learn to act like ladies and gentlemen. Granted, though......and I am not naive enough to think otherwise......that may not be an easy thing to do. It will take more than just a magic wand.