GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A series of fights at Collins Hill High School has administrators changing dismissal procedures and adding extra security.
Channel 2 Action News obtained cellphone videos of two fights in the school hallways on Friday.
In one incident, Principal Kerensa Wing can be seen being pushed to the ground as she tries to break up the fight. She was not seriously injured.
Administrators say there have been three fights on campus, and another off-campus incident over the weekend.
School leaders say they've called in extra School Resource Officers to be on standby at Collins Hill, and students say they have noticed.
"Yesterday during lunch there were a few policemen walking around and they looked like they were ready for anything," said senior Ryley Schaffer.
Most students say they haven’t personally witnessed any of the fights, but have heard a lot about them.
"As I'm going to class I'm just thinking I just think at any time something could happen so it's been a rough week," said Matthew Hoch.
The school has also taken the unusual step of changing the way students are dismissed every day.
"Instead of letting all the students go at once, they are dismissing them by hallways, kind of in waves so you don’t have a lot of kids gathering in one place," said School District Spokeswoman Sloan Roach.
Roach told Channel 2’s Tony Thomas she doesn't know if any of the fights have been linked, but the security measures will remain in place at least through this week.
"We are pretty calm overall, I guess just the teachers are little more, like, serious about it," said student Lexie Smith.
Students say while tensions remain high at times, they hope things will soon get back to normal at the school of more than 3,000 students.
"I definitely don’t feel safe at school, but hopefully that will change," said Matthew Hoch.
Wing sent the following email blast out to parents Monday night.
Dear Parents/Guardians of Collins Hill High Students,
As partners with you in your child's education, I felt the need to reach out to you about several incidents that have occurred within the last few days. Late last week we had to address fighting three separate times. We also had two other situations where students had congregated because they had heard there was supposed to be a fight. In all of these situations, teachers and administrators worked quickly to disperse students. Over the weekend, we received a report that there was another fight in the community off campus that involved some of our students.
While these situations involved only a small number of students, I am concerned by this recent behavior and wanted to make you aware of this. We have taken a number of proactive steps at school to address this. We had additional school resource officers on campus today as a precaution. In addition, we held an advisement lesson on school citizenship, reminding students about appropriate behavior and how to handle situations, as well as the importance of reporting concerns they have. At dismissal today, we also released students by hallways to ensure that we did not have large groups of students congregating.
There also has been a lot of chatter on various social media about these incidents. A number of rumors have developed out of this chatter. I want to assure you of two very important things… First, our school takes student and staff safety very seriously and thoroughly investigates all incidents and rumors. Second, you have my promise that any student involved in a fight at school (including those who participate in disruptive behavior or who encourage others to break rules) will face disciplinary consequences and criminal charges, if warranted.
We are fortunate to have an outstanding school filled with great kids, dedicated teachers, and caring parents. We will not let a few disruptive students affect the education and school experience for the vast majority of our students. I wanted to make sure you were aware of these recent challenges and our efforts to address them. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact our school leadership team.
Sincerely,
Kerensa Wing
WSBTV
