FIGHT CALLED TYPICAL JUNIOR HIGH BEHAVIOR, SAYS PRINCIPAL

An early morning fight outside of Central Junior High School resulted in juvenile citations for seven girls Tuesday.

Police and school reports said two girls began to argue in the midst of a crowd of about 40 students just before school began. The argument escalated to a physical fight that involved seven students.

Three teachers witnessed the incident, which was broken up by school resource officer Cpl. Barry Hovis and three other police officers.

In all, eight girls were involved in the fracas and sent home from school, said Cape Girardeau Police Sgt. Carl Kinnison.

Seven students -- six 14-year-olds and a 15-year-old -- were cited into juvenile court for peace disturbance by fighting. One of the students involved in the argument did not participate in the fight and was not cited, Kinnison said.

Hovis told Kinnison that about as soon as the fight started it was over, Kinnison said, adding: "It didn't last long. Normally in a situation like that we just inform (juveniles and their parents) that they'll be contacted by juvenile authorities."

Principal Gerald Richards said the incident was "just your usual junior high girl fight." The fact that the fight occurred in the presence of teachers indicated none of the girls involved intended to harm anyone.

"It's very common junior-high type of behavior," Richards said. "They don't want to fight in their neighborhoods because they are afraid someone might get hurt."

Richards said several of the students involved were related and lived in the same neighborhood. In his opinion, the fight resembled "family feuds" that typically develop in small communities.

"This was actually something that started in their neighborhood and they decided to carry it on school grounds," he said. "The schools often get brought into things that weren't owned by the schools to begin with."

Scott Johnson, whose daughter was sent home in the incident, said Richards is downplaying a potentially violent situation.

"They'll downplay this and say it's no big deal, but next week the same thing will happen, but they'll have blades or something," Johnson said.

Johnson insists the fight was not typical because it wasn't a one-time occurrence. Rather, several of the girls involved have developed a gang-like mentality and are forcing other girls into situations where they have to fight.

School officials need to take a proactive stance in the situation before a violent incident occurs in the school, he said.

"In a typical fight, two girls fight, maybe get suspended, come back to school and are talking to each other," Johnson said. "For people to have to go to the hospital in this, I think these kids are trying to hurt each other now."

Richards said he was unaware of any students needing to seek hospital treatment after the fight. The students were all seen by the school nurse and told to seek additional treatment if necessary.

He said he also was unaware of any female gang activity in the community.

"As far as I could tell, this was mostly family and cousins and family and cousins," said Richards.

Too much attention from school officials or the media could blow the incident out of proportion and interrupt the learning environment at the school, Richards said.

"It's giving attention to things like this that perpetuates the atmosphere of fear in the schools," he said.

"I've seen a whole lot worse," he continued. "We don't have them everyday, but if you've been in the business as long as I have, you know it's not even close to the problems we had in the late 1960s through the early 1970s."

Richards said he sees a much better behaved student population at the junior high than he did in the late 1960s and early 1970s.