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If you have a student at Yucca Valley High School – you may have heard reports of increased fights breaking out at Yucca Valley High School on Wednesday. On the heels of an earlier report about a potential threat that was ultimately proven to be unfounded – z107.7 began receiving emails and calls from parents who say they were concerned with what their kids were sharing with them during school and when they got home.
“My daughter texted me on the first day of school – I believe – saying there was six or seven fights that broke out on campus on that day and she has repeatedly texted me throughout this last month about the number of fights happening…”
That was one parent of a Yucca Valley High Schooler that we spoke to on Thursday- when talking with her daughter about the seemingly sudden increase in physical altercations- she said “fights at school and it’s always been a common thing – well not really common but it’s always happened.. But nothing like this.”
After Wednesday’s incidents Principal Justin Monical says they sent email and phone communications informing parents of the fights – he says “that sparked a lot of conversations for folks, and some of those conversations were accurate… some not necessarily based in fact.”
By Thursday a few Facebook comment threads had hit triple digits – with the actual number of the fights swinging from 10 to upwards of 30. Principal Monical says that he understands why parents would reach out to the school, especially as speculation and sharing of videos grew on social media. However – administrators and staff have to consider school policy over immediately responding to concerns over individual incidents.
“…for us it’s it’s trying to be respectful of the process – the investigative process – trying to be respectful of our students privacy and their family’s privacy. We don’t want to put out information about our kids in the goings-on here so that people would be able to know who it was or what it was so we have to be very mindful of that but we also want to make sure that our community has facts about what happens.”
An assembly on Thursday afternoon was held to debrief with students about the previous day’s fights, and Monical said a majority of students expressed their concern and want a better academic environment than what they witnessed on Wednesday.
“It creates an anxious environment, distracting and disruptive of the entire learning environment and just not feeling safe at your own school and that’s not how you should feel.” -YVHS Student
Superintendent Vargas stated that despite Wednesday’s disturbances – schools are still the safest place in the community, and they value parents as allies in the education of their students.
We’ll have a longer version of this story later today – outlining the school’s steps they are taking in response to the increased incidents.
