EAST CHICAGO | Police presence at East Chicago Central High School has been increased fivefold in the wake of widespread brawling that led to last week's lockdown, and school officials are promising more security measures to come.
Parents and family members packed Thursday's regularly scheduled School Board meeting looking for explanations about what happened Friday. In the melees, one student was hospitalized, eight others were arrested, and 1,500 more were locked into their classrooms until school was dismissed early at 1:30 p.m.
A partition behind the usually empty board chambers had to be removed to accommodate the more than 100 residents in attendance for the 3 1/2-hour session, and board member Rudolph Lopez translated the discussion into Spanish.
Five additional police officers have been assigned to the school district in the aftermath of the incident, said Gus Flores, schools security director, bringing the total law enforcement complement to six, with all assigned to Central High School.
"And if we find that six isn't enough," said Flores, "I'll go back to the mayor and chief of police and ask for more."
Hearings are scheduled next week for those students taken into custody in the melee who have not been allowed back in school since. Those students and their parents will learn whether their punishments will be suspension or expulsion.
Both Superintendent Juan Anaya and police Cmdr. Cynthia Haynes, who led the tactical units that locked down the school shortly before noon Friday, denied that the armored and heavily armed SWAT officers seen patrolling the hallways were specifically called to the scene.
Rather, said Haynes, the city's SWAT team was engaged in training exercises when the call for more units at the high school was made, and they responded so that uniformed officers could continue patrolling the rest of the city.
Parents in attendance called for increased video surveillance inside the school, metal detectors at its entrances, and better communication between school officials and parents when situations such as occurred last week arise.
School Board President Fernando Trevino said Flores, a former East Chicago police chief who was hired for the schools security job just days before the lockdown, has been tasked with the development of a districtwide security action plan.
"A small minority of students have no respect for anyone," Flores said. "And we're not going to allow these teenagers to run the high school to the detriment of the vast majority who come to learn."
No injuries among the student population occurred once the school was brought under control by the lockdown action, Flores said.
