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Student fights spark tension
By Emily Hill, ehill@starlocalnews.com
At the end of April, some students at Little Elm High School were involved in an altercation that has sparked rumors and tension in these last few weeks of school.
According to Little Elm Police Department Captain Rodney Harrison, two weeks ago there was an "exchange of words" between two groups of students. One group allegedly said some racially inappropriate slurs toward one of the students in the other group. Harrison said the brother of the student being called names had had enough and told the group to stop.
Harrison said some students in the other group decided the brother was right and agreed to stop. However, a female student decided to say more racially inappropriate words and started cursing, according to Harrison.
"They got into a fight, punches were thrown," Harrison said. "Two kids got sent home for fighting."
He said two other students were given citations for disorderly conduct in language for swearing.
Julie Zwahr, director of Communications for Little Elm ISD, said in an email that the students involved in the altercation were immediately removed from campus. After an investigation, the students were removed from LEHS for the remainder of the year.
"Little Elm ISD has been in continual contact with parents, letting them know that extra staff and police officers were on duty and would be called upon for extra support for students and staff," the email said. "The superintendent sent a letter to parents as well."
Rumors soon began to spread on Facebook that there had been shooting threats at the high school. Concerned, parents began posting on the LEISD Facebook page trying to find out the facts of the story. However, both the school district and LEPD have found those rumors to be false and without any credible evidence.
"We've spent a ton of hours on it, trying to make sure we're not missing something," Harrison said. "We're on top of the situation. We've spent a lot of man hours on it, working in conjunction with the school district on every issue."
Harrison said there was another fight that occurred at the school but it was not in connection to the original altercation.
Zwahr said she received several phone calls from parents, but wouldn't say it was an overwhelming number.
"Since it's happened almost two weeks ago, the calls have trailed off since then," Zwahr said.
However, according to Harrison, one parent was arrested for harassing the school district by calling numerous times, cursing LEISD staff and calling some administrators racially inappropriate slurs. After three or four days of harassment, the school district called LEPD to handle the issue, which is a Class B misdemeanor.
"We take threats to students, parents or staff very seriously," Zwahr said in an email. "Any time someone makes a threat toward a member of our faculty or staff, we will work with local law enforcement to assure the individual(s) is prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
The LEHS staff has tightened security by increasing police presence on certain days of the week and more staff during lunchtime.
"I think we're headed in the right direction. I think we just need to get to summer," Harrison said.
LEISD asks students or residents who have more information to the situations to not hesitate in contacting the school district at 972-292-1847.
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