[KHTS] More video regarding a Valencia High fight circulated online was followed by disciplinary action for several of the students involved in “a complex altercation” that began 11 days ago, Hart district officials said Thursday.
“Disciplinary action has been taken against seven students based on the evidence of their actions, which violated board policy and education code,” according to a statement from Valencia High Principal John Costanzo. “The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act prohibits the school or district from disclosing specific information about any student and his or her disciplinary actions, so while the community may not be privy to the actions being taken by the school, we would like to assure everyone that action is being taken.”
A nearly four-minute video of the incident is being investigated by Valencia High, the principal assured parents in a statement.
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies are also investigating the fight, the video and the circumstances surrounding it, and the fallout from the incident already resulted in one Hart district juvenile getting arrested, officials said.
A student was arrested this week regarding threats he allegedly made after the video of the fight was posted online.
The incident reportedly began Oct. 13, officials said, and involved Valencia High students, as well as other schools, and a former Hart district student who still lives in the area.
The recorded fight took place Friday, Oct. 17, which video shows several students beating up another student in an on-campus fight.
Another video obtained by KHTS AM-1220 and SCVTV shows students provoking each other with threats and making plans “to throw hands,” but not “in front of administration,” which appears to take place shortly before the reported assault.
School administrators were contacted, as was law enforcement, officials said in response to the incident. The continued online postings have led to further investigation which is ongoing at this time.
“Social media has seen many posts that reflect only a small portion of the entire story,” Costanza said in a statement to parents.
Discipline would be assigned following a full investigation, officials said, and the state’s Education Code spells out the appropriate punishments for disciplinary infractions.
On Wednesday, a West Ranch High students was detained, cited and given a court date regarding criminal threats allegedly made in response to viewing the video online.
A petition called “Remove the assailants from the team,” was posted after the incident, and had collected more than 1,500 signatures by Wednesday afternoon.
The author addressed the petition to Valencia High School and Valencia Baseball, “because they assaulted my good friend, who is also a kindhearted and upstanding citizen.”
School officials said privacy concerns prevented them from commenting on any of the allegations made.
“The Friday night fight incident is still under active investigation,” said Deputy Josh Dubin of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station. “No other arrests have been made at this point. Deputies are working closely with school staff.”
No other information about the investigation is available at this time, officials said.
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2 Comments
So wait a minute…
Somebody makes a threat and gets arrested.
Several people actually assault someone and DON’T get arrested ?
Is there something wrong with this ?
For those who are frustrated by the apparent absence of any real discipline and wonder what happened to all the “anti-bullying” talk and school policies designed to prevent and remedy violence on campus, I offer the following:
Don’t follow the talk. Follow the action. The talk/words/policies are the smoke. People hear terms like “zero tolerance” and other policies and then get frustrated when the enforcement is weak or missing altogether. We can determine the HS, District and law enforcement positions with confidence and certainty by looking at the action taken and the manner in which it was taken.
What we know: There are circumstances under which it is permissible for several students to attack, or attempt to attack, one or more other students. That has to be true because if it wasn’t there would have, at the very least, been immediate suspensions pending the investigation.
We also know that it takes many days to perform this type of investigation. This tells us that the rights of the attackers will be carefully, thoughtfully and thoroughly protected. Therefore, if in the future you plan to attack someone on the Valencia campus, you can be assured of due process.
We also know from this event that if you threaten to harm someone, action against you will be swift, certain, specific and immediately and clearly available to the public. If you ACTUALLY attack someone, action, if any, will be glacially slow and vague–buried beneath policies and perpetrators rights.
This tells us that threats are a considerable priority over actual violence for the administration of these various interrelated agencies. If the boys in the video had only threatened to do what they did, we now know the punishment would have been swift and specific.