Brawl at Fla. High School Leads to 18 Arrests
A brawl at Florida’s South Broward High School Wednesday involving as many as 50 students caused officials to lock down the campus temporarily, reports Sun-Sentinel.
It all started during the school’s lunchtime when a hostile exchange of words between groups of students blew up into a full-fledged brawl involving as many of 50 people after only a few minutes, police say.
“Before you know it, more kids jumped in, and we had to have officers there to break it all up,” Lt. Manny Marino, a police spokesman, said. “There were no weapons, just punches. One or two of them might have a bump, bruise, or black eye, but nothing that required medical treatment,” he said.
The spectator crowd had grown to about 100 by the time police arrived and between 30 and 50 students were punching each other, reports the paper. After all was said and done, 18 young people (17 boys and one girl) were taken away in handcuffs, accused of disturbing a school function and disorderly conduct.
The temporary lockdown, ordered by school officials, required students stay inside of their classrooms while police broke up the fight and looked for the culprits. Police don’t know what set off the argument, but there are rumors that beef between rival gangs could have been the source of the conflict.
