Jenna Bordelon
BURBANK -- A fight between Armenian-American and Latino students that
broke out on the Burbank High School campus Thursday resulted in police
patrols throughout the area and the arrest of one student, officials
said.
It was unclear exactly what caused the confrontation and who was
involved. School officials quickly dismissed speculation the fight was a
racially motivated, while students said the same thing happened last year
between students in different ethnic groups.
"It was like a moving fight, it would slow up," Sgt. Jose Duran Jr.
said. "We believe it was an Armenian and Hispanic thing."
Marissa Rosoff, Burbank High's coordinator of school safety and
outreach, said she had no indication it was a racial incident.
"I'm not seeing this as a racial thing yet," she said. "As far as we
can tell, this was kids being disrespectful to each other."
The scuffle began in the mid-morning hours during a break from class
in the quad near the cafeteria.
It is not clear who began the fight. Most of the students involved
seemed to be onlookers, police said.
One 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a school
employee, Sgt. John Dilibert said. The boy allegedly windmilled his
elbows while being restrained by a campus aide and hit her.
The boy was released to his parents. The woman was not injured.
Police officers, patrolling the hills after school let out,
encountered a group of more than 20 Burbank High boys at the corner of
Bel Aire Drive and Birmingham Road.
One boy had a pocketknife and another had multiple rolls of toilet
paper in the trunk of his car, police said. No one was arrested.
Officers from the special enforcement and gang details will be at the
school Friday to watch for signs of trouble.
"If we find out that other kids have been instrumental in initiating
any kind of fights on campus, then we're going to work with the police
department to resolve the problem," Rosoff said. "They may need to be
arrested too."
