Last Updated on November 17, 2017, 10:38 AM | Published: November 16, 2017
UPDATED 9:30 p.m. 11-16-17 — Two teachers were injured breaking up a brawl between seven girls Wednesday at U.S. Grant High School.
The large south side school at 5016 S. Pennsylvania Avenue is in Oklahoma City Public Schools. It has about 2,000 students in a building designed for 1,200.
“Unfortunately, two teachers received minor injuries in the process, but both are expected to return to the classroom today,” Beth Harrison with OKCPS said in response to our email Thursday.
The report from the OKCPD school resource officer, or SRO, was that the two teachers were seen by the school nurse.
But Free Press learned after this report was first published that both teachers were injured and their principal, Greg Frederick, insisted they be seen by a doctor.
We received this information directly from one of the involved teachers who asked for their name to be withheld.
The female teacher received a sprained wrist. The male teacher received an abrasion across his knee.
Both were seen by a doctor and have been released without restriction.
The two injured teachers were the first to try and stop the brawl, then according to one of the teachers, three or four administrators helped them gain control of the seven students involved.
Harrison originally said six girls were involved in the fight, but later police reports show seven were cited.
Six were arrested at the end of the fight. A seventh was later identified from surveillance footage and cited along with the other six.
Officer Megan Morgan with the Oklahoma City Police Department told Free Press all seven could be seen on the surveillance video equally involved in the fight.
The seven were cited with disorderly conduct by the SRO and will have to appear in Oklahoma City municipal court over the incident.
The six girls were held at the school and then released into their parents’ custody. The seventh had checked out, but her parents were called to come back to pick up the citation.
In response to our email request, Harrison said, ” There have been 159 recorded ‘Fight’ incidents district wide for the month of October. The Oklahoma City Public Schools Student Code of Conduct defines ‘Fighting- Involves the exchange of mutual, physical contact including, but not limited to, hitting with or without injury.’”
She told Free Press there have been 198 fights to date in November in the district.
Harrison confirmed that one other teacher was injured and received treatment for intervening in a fight in October.
This comes on the heels of a teacher survey conducted by the American Federation of Teachers union that showed widespread dissatisfaction with discipline in OKCPS.
The survey was presented to the OKCPS Board of Education Monday night.
Free Press made contact with Ed Allen, president of the OKC AFT local, after this story first published.
“This is what we’re talking about. It’s what goes on every day in most buildings, or you can anticipate maybe that it could happen,” said Allen.
“These teachers are heroes. The heroes that would step in with seven girls fighting and try to break it up,” Allen said. “That’s what a teacher has to know. That when [they] go to work that might happen.”
UPDATED to include first hand information gained from one of the teachers who broke up the fight and to include comments from the teachers union president.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
