Students Charged in Fight Outside Ferndale Alternative High School
There were five students arrested after incident, including three 18-year-old males and two 17-year-old males. An 18-year-old female was also arrested after the fight for behavior unrelated to the incident.
Five students who were arrested on Wednesday after a fight outside Ferndale's Digital Learning Center were arraigned on Thursday.
The fight occured around 1:20 p.m. Wednesday near the Gardendale Street entrance of the school, Ferndale Police Chief Tim Collins said Thursday. It started with two students and three more joined in. Collins said about 20 students were surrounding the fight when officers arrived.
A Taser was used on one of the students after a school resource officer was pushed to the ground as the two students tried to get at each other, Collins said.
There were five students arrested after incident, including three 18-year-old males and two 17-year-old males. An 18-year-old female was also arrested after the fight for behavior unrelated to the incident.
According to a media release from Ferndale Police Lt. William Wilson, the charges included:
Two students were charged with Resisting and Obstructing Police and Disturbing the Peace, bond was set at $5,000 each. Another student was charged with Disturbing the Peace; he pled guilty and bond was set at $300.
One student was charged with Resisting and Obstructing Police and Disturbing the Peace; bond was set at $10,000. Another student was charged with a city charge of Disorderly/Fighting, and bond was set at $1,500.
The other student who was arrested was issued a City Ordinance Warrant for Disturbing the Peace, according to the release.
Collins said police are meeting next week with school staff and administration to discuss security at the Digital Learning Center. "We want to make sure that everybody's on the same page. We're working very closely with the administration," he said.
Before the fight on Wednesday, four students were sent home from the school, Collins said. These students were not involved in the fight and did not return to the school that day, he said.
Previous reports in other media outlets stated that the fight had been gang-related, however Wilson wrote in the most recent press release that the students involved in this fight were not affiliated with any gang.
"While initial concerns about gang related problems caused the extra police presence earlier in the day, it turned out that the students involved in the fight near the school entrance (outside, not inside, of the building) were not gang related," he wrote.
Easydude
4:47 pm on Friday, October 26, 2012
What happened to the comments? I am sitting here with a friend discussing the Digital Learning Center. We decided to read the article again and all four comments are missing.
Jessica Schrader
4:51 pm on Friday, October 26, 2012
This is an update with the arraignment info - I think you're looking for yesterday's story - http://ferndale.patch.com/articles/6-students-arrested-after-fight-at-ferndale-digital-learning-center
Ferndale Mom
7:55 am on Saturday, October 27, 2012
I thought the changes the district made were to lessen these type of incidents. I thought that there was suppose to be less students in the building to eliminate this type of activity. As a parent in the district I feel we need to close this school and focus more on the students in our K-12 programs. So many other students need our time and resources and the district needs to realize that making these changes did not work, close the school and focus on our K-12 programs.
Ferndale_1986
12:45 pm on Saturday, October 27, 2012
This news is definitely poison for the CBE slate of candidates to reelect the current School Board members.