Parents of Kennedy Junior High School students will be asked to encourage their children to avoid gang-type clothing in the wake of an incident last week involving gang members.
The school was essentially back to normal Monday morning, Principal Lloyd Bybee said. About a half-dozen students were suspended or otherwise disciplined for their participation in several related events Friday.Bybee said the situation did not approach riot proportions, although students congregated to watch what was happening.
The series of events began with a shoving match in midweek. Knives were produced by two students, one of whom is associated with the "Mods," a group that wears black clothing and long hair on one side of the head.
The incident occurred outside the school as a group of students was walking from a nearby LDS seminary building. The next day, the Mod-affilliated student was accosted in the hall by another student who thought, incorrectly, that the gang member had pulled a knife on some girls.
The gang member, apparently concerned about being targeted for retaliation, called other Mods who showed up in a car. One was showing a gun, said John Klinetop, the West Valley police officer assigned to the school. The car with the youths did not stay long, but the incident triggered out-of-proportion rumors that Mods were threatening others with guns.
When school ended, a parent was picking up her daughter and the girl's friends when a student shouted that the girls were friends of the student who had brandished a gun. Although that was not an accurate statement, about a hundred students surrounded the car and began beating or kicking it, Klinetop said. About $1,000 damage was inflicted on the late-model Ford Thunderbird.
Klinetop complimented the mother for not panicking and running over students. She slowly moved through the crowd and left, he said.
Two students were arrested for vandalism and referred to juvenile court. Another was referred for his assault on a fellow student.
Bybee said he felt the incidents were blown out of proportion, but he wants parents to understand that if they allow their students to wear gang-type clothing, even inadvertently, they may court trouble.