news-record.com

Skip to the site menu
Skip to search

NEWS

Advertisement | Advertise with Us

Sheriff to charge 4 students in gang fight at Northeast

Thursday, October 22, 2009

(Updated 11:07 pm)

By J. Brian Ewing
Staff Writer

GREENSBORO — A fight at Northeast High on Oct. 7 was not as big as investigators thought but did involve gangs.

That’s according to the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office, which said it plans to charge four students for taking part in the fight.

The sheriff’s office originally said as many as 10 students were involved but lowered that number after reviewing videotape of the fight.

“There were a lot of people around and it looked like a bigger fight than what it was,” Capt. Phil Byrd said.

School officials originally said four students were involved; however, they reported Thursday that two more students have been suspended. They contend the fight was not a major issue.

“I feel badly for the school and the parents that have had a level of concern raised that didn’t need to be raised,” said Nora Carr, a spokeswoman for the school district.

The fight involved members of two gangs, according to Byrd. Some of the students involved identified themselves as gang members, he said, and witnesses identified the other students as gang members.

Byrd said students are known to wear gang clothes and accessories at the school. Other investigations have revealed Northeast students were involved in gang activity outside school.

Byrd played down the presence of gangs at Northeast and other schools policed by the sheriff’s office.

“We have just as much or more disorderly conduct at our schools than gangs really taking over,” he said.

Byrd said the four students investigated will be charged after they return to school from suspension. One of the students also could be charged with inciting a riot.

A deputy, or school resource officer, was not at the school at the time of the fight because the regular officer was injured breaking up an unrelated fight a few weeks earlier. A part-time deputy has worked at the school since then.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com

What do you think?

11 comment(s)

Read other visitors' comments.

Comments

This article has been closed to new comments. Comments are generally closed after 14 days. However, comments may be closed earlier at the discretion of the News & Record.

Inappropriate content? Please notify us.

Lakeshia

October 22, 2009 - 4:06 pm EDT

Too bad an individual picture of each of these four did not accompany this article - know what I'm saying ?

gsostudent

October 22, 2009 - 5:00 pm EDT

No I don't, so why don't you come out your mouth and say whatever racist thing you're thinking rather than alluding to it.

a9faninnc

October 22, 2009 - 5:42 pm EDT

Why dont you allude as to why you deem this poster a racist.Are you insinuating that these "gang members" are minority,do you know them,or are you calling someone a racist to defend your perception of what you think these thugs are??Seems youre a tad racial yourself.

Our society is very quick to throw a racist moniker around when the people doing it should sometimes look in a mirror..

vlmwest

October 22, 2009 - 6:23 pm EDT

I'm SO TIRED OF THAT BULLCRAP gsostudent!! I'm so tired of walking on eggshells because I'm worried about offending someone, and I'll be accused of being racist. Suck it up princess...we are black, white, yellow...there's always going to be racist people, of ALL COLORS. But back to the topic at hand...my brother teaches at NE...and to be quite honest...it is now a "minority" school...there are more people of color at that school...so yes, more than likely, they were black. Now chill the heck out...and stop accusing people of being racist.

whyus

October 22, 2009 - 5:57 pm EDT

4 idiots or 10. Not sure if this is news worthy. Kick all of them out of school and pay them to hunt down the bastards that NC Supreme court wants to release back into society. Pay them commission and they will get the job done.

nippded twistle

October 22, 2009 - 9:25 pm EDT

Law abiding citizens that raise their children to behave should reclaim public schools! Expel every misbehaving thug permanently. Let their parents send them to a private school that they must pay for! Make public schooling a privilege not a handout.

whoa

October 22, 2009 - 9:39 pm EDT

i don't think anyone who has posted a comment in regards to the articles about ne's "gang" fights knows what is really going on in the school. everyone is so quick to jump to conclusions or be politically correct. when the simple truth is, yes there maybe gang activity at ne as well as several other gc schools.... that is a sad part of our school climate right now... it should be important for everyone to spend their time looking for solutions instead of a scape goat, so that we can create a plan to mediate between groups or for a place where these young people can obtain an education without disrupting the education of those students who want to succeed.

ps i think it would be a fabulous idea to post these young peoples pictures up..... these are students who created a harmful situation for not only the student body but the faculty.... the media... they caused "unnessasary" chaos... but that also comes from obtaining information from people who only form opinions and not from people who were actually in the places where these fights took place.

turkey

October 22, 2009 - 10:30 pm EDT

I Teach. I am sick of it all. PLEASE public do something about it!!!!!!!!

bottechia

October 23, 2009 - 2:02 am EDT

"A deputy, or school resource officer, was not at the school at the time of the fight because the regular officer was injured breaking up an unrelated fight a few weeks earlier. A part-time deputy has worked at the school since then."

If we keep letting the inmates run the asylum so to speak
nothing will never get done.
NEHS has been on the decline for sometime now, seems to be getting worse.

vlmwest

October 23, 2009 - 9:28 am EDT

You are mistaken. NEHS was voted one of the most improved schools this year. Do your homework before you make generalized statements about NEHS being on a decline.

camelz

October 23, 2009 - 8:20 am EDT

“I feel badly for the school and the parents that have had a level of concern raised that didn’t need to be raised,” said Nora Carr, a spokeswoman for the school district. ? ? ?

Are you kidding me? The level of concern should be raised - every day that a parent sends a child to this school, or any other school in this school system - a system that refuses to accept the fact that our schools are very dangerous places. Whether it's gang-related, or just simply some really bad individuals - the school system (including certain elements on the Board) will not, for whatever reason, take its head out of the sand.

Why, in the absence of the "regular" SRO, do they have a part-time SRO? Is the school system budget so tight that it cannot afford to replace a full-time position with a full-time replacement while the officer recovers from the injuries sustained in an earlier incident? The answer is a resounding "no". Student safety should be one of the foremost concerns of the administration and Board. If a full-time SRO is warranted under "normal" circumstances, then it's warranted under ANY circumstances. In this instance, and any other where an SRO is injured and replaced by a part-timer, the school system gets an "F".