SAN ANTONIO – Flying fists disrupted learning Tuesday at Highlands High School on the city's Southeast Side and landed several students in handcuffs.
The day of fighting worried many students and parents. Those fights are now prompting extra campus security and school schedule changes.
Video of a brawl between about 10 boys erupting in the middle of the school gym is now plastered across the Internet. That was just one of many fights on campus.
"It started this morning around 8 a.m. at the back of the campus before school started. We understand there were a number of flare-ups at different points in the morning, culminating into a final fight during lunchtime," said San Antonio Independent School District spokesperson Leslie Price.
That last and biggest fight was in the cafeteria. Campus police arrested four students on suspicion of assault.
"During some of those breaking up of fights, we had three administrators and one police officer who sustained minor injuries," Price said.
Price said after the chaos at lunch, students did not change classrooms for the rest of the day. Administrators also enacted a controlled dismissal, meaning students were released from school in smaller groups and let out of different exits. Both of these actions were to keep crowds of students from crossing in hallways.
That concept has now led to a permanent change with the school's lunch periods.
"Instead of having just a few minutes between each lunch period, so you've got a lot of passing of students, we're having more time in between so one group can be going out and then the next one coming in," Price explained.
"That's just one of those things you have to see how it goes," parent Vanessa Robinson said.
Robinson has two daughters at Highlands and has become worried about the fights.
"You hear of a fight here and there, but this year it's frequently. Sometimes my daughters will come home, 'Mom it was three or four fights in the cafeteria,'" she said. "Then you start thinking, 'Should I transfer and find a better school for my kids?' because it don't seem like enough discipline is done."
Her oldest daughter Ragina graduated last year and said these issues seem very recent.
"It was not like this. We had a couple fights but it was never like a weekly thing," she said.
Even though Robinson is upset about the amount of violence erupting at her daughters' school, she said she was happy with how things were handled after the fights Tuesday.
"I felt a little better seeing the officers and everything. It went smooth," she said.
Administrators called extra district officers to the campus when the fights began to break out. Those extra officers will be on campus at least through Wednesday.
Plus, the principal sent out an automated message to all parents warning about the controlled dismissal.
Administrators said the investigation has just begun. They are trying to figure out who was involved and why they were fighting. They say disciplinary action will be taken.