Some parents of Acadiana High Students are expressing concern that fights are increasing at the school after a video of a fight that sent one student to the hospital went viral, so we wanted to see fighting numbers for every school in the Parish.
KATC is choosing not to share that video of the two teenagers fighting at the high school.
You can read more on that story here.
KATC’s Dannielle Garcia sat down with Lafayette Parish Sheriff Mark Garber to see the numbers.
There have been 272 arrests at schools for teenagers fighting since August when the school resource officers were implemented parish-wide.
Of those, the highest number of arrests happened at Paul Breaux Middle School with 48 arrests for fighting, Carencro High School with 33 and Acadiana High School with 30.
“We’re peace officers; we keep the peace. And, this is a disturbing the peace by fighting. We’re there to protect from the outside threats but also from the internal violence,” said Sheriff Garber.
When a fight breaks out on campus, not only can students face repercussions from the school system but also criminal charges.
Here are the number of arrests for disturbing the peace by fighting at schools in Lafayette Parish for the 2018-2019 school year so far:
- Judice Middle: 1
- Milton Middle: 2
- Career Center: 3
- Edgar Martin: 4
- Broussard Middle: 8
- Northside High: 11
- LJ Alleman: 12
- Lafayette Middle: 14
- Acadiana Middle: 14
- Comeaux High: 15
- Carencro Middle: 16
- Scott Middle: 17
- Lafayette High: 21
- NP Moss/ Leroson: 22
- Acadiana High: 30
- Carencro High: 33
- Paul Breaux Middle: 48
“When they are detained, juveniles are taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center to divert juveniles from the criminal justice system, if possible, and get them help and look into the root cause of why are they fighting,” he said.
At the Juvenile Assessment Center, the teens get counseling and go through diversion programs that fit their situation.
Sheriff Garber said this was put in place by the previous sheriff in an effort to lower violence in the future.
“We can arrest kids or detain them for fighting, but what changes? Are you changing their home environment at all? Are you even dealing with that? Are you dealing with the circumstances that led to that fight as opposed to simply slapping them on the wrist and expecting something different down the road?” he said.
