St. Louis Park High School canceled classes Friday after multiple fights broke out late in the school day Thursday.
“The high school will be closed to students, families and the public tomorrow. All on-site activities are also canceled, including the girls basketball game and high school athletic practices,” the school said in a statement on its website Thursday.
“School is canceled tomorrow to give staff the time needed to thoroughly investigate today’s safety incidents, collaborate with police, and prepare plans for a safe return to school next week. Police have already made arrests related to today’s incidents. All other schools in the district will hold school as usual,” the statement continued.
The district said two groups of students were involved in a “physical altercation” toward the end of the day Thursday. Teachers and staff immediately responded to the fight but it “escalated further” when adults who were not school employees later “became involved in another physical altercation with some of the students.” These adults were “aware of the earlier altercation,” the school said.
Some of the students and staff sustained minor injuries like scrapes and bruises and two adults were arrested.
The school said staff members and “on-site police” immediately responded to the second fight. The City of St. Louis Park announced in August that it was replacing its school resource officer position with a new role called juvenile response officers. Under this change, officers are no longer stationed at the city’s middle school or high school but continue to patrol areas next to the schools during school hours.
St. Louis Park High School said police are looking into whether Thursday’s incidents were “racially motivated.”
Crime Watch Minneapolis obtained videos of both fights, one of which took place in a school hallway and the other outside in the parking lot, according to the videos.
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Arrested parties:
Abreeha Annalisa Smith, 22
Latoys Renail Milon, 41Smith had an active felony warrant for aid/abet theft, as well as two other open cases for theft.
Milon had an active warrant for theft of services.
Both were released after less than 5 hours in jail. pic.twitter.com/4a0Mseiva3
— CrimeWatchMpls (@CrimeWatchMpls) January 19, 2024
Crime Watch reported that staff were asked to report for work on Friday, use their badges to access the building since all doors would be locked, and avoid talking to the media.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
