Leonor Vivanco, Lori Cansalvo, Wes Woods, and Melissa Pinion-Whitt
FONTANA - Water and Gatorade bottles as well as rocks flew. Fists swung at lunch time today at Fontana High School.
A race riot included 500 students on the quad of the campus near Citrus Avenue.
Police surrounded Fontana High School after a fight between two students escalated into the riot involving the students throwing bottles and rocks on campus.
Some students flocked to the chaotic melee with their cell phones taking pictures and recording video while other fled to get out of the way. Helicopters circled over the school.
``There were fights everywhere - girls and guys,'' said Dalila Lizarraga, 16.
Sophomore Abigail Orozco said the fight was the biggest one yet at the school. ``It's Friday the 13th so maybe that's why,'' she said.
But students say fights are common on school grounds.
``It all started with blacks versus Mexicans as always,'' she said.
The riot became so serious that police officers fired bean bag rounds and released sting balls, which disperse hundreds of rubber pellets into a crowd. Some students retaliated, throwing bottles at police officers.
Police said the incident began at lunch around noon when a black and Latino student began fighting.
More blacks and Latinos jumped into the fray, generating a larger fight. A group of Samoan students then joined the fight, said Fontana police Sgt. Doug Wagner. Students threw rocks, Gatorade and water bottles at each other.
Students who were still in class said sometime during the fight the fire alarm was pulled, prompting more students to filter out of class. Within minutes, the brawl in the quad grew to hundreds of students.
"I rushed over when I heard it because I thought it was just going to be another school fight," said Fontana High School junior Roger Nelson, 16. "I didn't think it was going to escalate with helicopters flying over."
Samantha Dorgey, 16, said confrontations at the school lead to fights about once a week, but nothing of this size.
``At first, I thought, `Oh, it's another fight' but then I saw the cops and damn,'' she said.
More than 100 police officers converged on the campus from different agencies, including the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and members of the swat team. The campus was closed and Citrus Avenue shut down to regain control of the school.
``The good news is no one was hurt,'' said Jane Smith, Fontana Unified School District superintendent.
At least four students were arrested, she said.
The school was put on lockdown as were Citrus Elementary School and Truman Middle School as a precaution in case students ran over to those campuses, she said.
``It's really a very small number of kids who caused this kind of tension,'' Smith said.
This weekend, administrators will work on putting a plan in place for Monday morning that will include a greater security presence, she said.
``Parents can be assured they can send their kids to school and they will be safe,'' she said.
About a dozen San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies worked outside the school to direct traffic away from Citrus Avenue.
Students not involved in the melee navigated cautiously through campus, trying not to get injured.
"It just kind of moved along the campus. People were running out of the way," said senior Dalila Lizarraga, 16.
Samantha Dorgey, 16, who was sitting in class around the time the fight started, said she was waiting for the bell to ring when she instead heard the fire alarm go off. She and her classmates filtered out onto the campus and saw the fight escalating.
"At first, I thought, 'Oh, it's just another fight.' But then I saw the cops with guns and, damn," she said.
Students were eventually allowed to leave the school about 1 p.m. and told not to return.
The Fontana Citrus Belt League game against Redlands High School at Steeler Stadium has been canceled. There is no word if the game will be rescheduled.
Fontana High is located at 9453 Citrus Ave., and is part of the Fontana Unified School District.
The school has an enrollment of 4,297 students.
Latinos make up 82 percent of the school's population, whites 9 percent, blacks 6 percent and less than 1 percent includes Asian/Pacific Islander/American Indian and others.
BS Ranch Perspective:
There are so many different Races in society today and we all have limited Real Estate to call our own, so we have to settle down and not allow to be walked on but to figure out what the whole story is before we all react upon the story of someone else's cause. This is a childish game that is a dangerous childish game. One against another in a situation and it is called a Race Riot!!
The students are out of hand at Fontana High School!!
BSRanch
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