Rising Racial Tensions May Have Spurred Cal High Fights

School and district officials are investigating escalating racial tensions thought to have contributed to several fights that broke out on the California High School campus Thursday.

"We're hearing that increased racial tensions exist and we want to address those head on," said San Ramon Valley Unified School District spokesman Terry Koehne.

He said the school and district will be working together to decide what further actions to take.

Three police officers and district officials were on campus Friday to monitor the school.

As Patch reported Thursday, police arrested a girl, saying she fought with students, punched the principal in the face and bit two staff members. That was one of several fights that officials and students say errupted that day. (Read comments posted by people claiming to be Cal High students here.)

"There's a lot of attention put on this girl but it wasn't just this girl," Koehne said. "There were probably at least half a dozen [students] involved."

The girl, an African American, is a former Cal High student who transferred earlier this year to Del Amigo, the district's continuation high school in Danville. According to Koehne, the attacks on the principal and staff followed a fight between the Del Amigo student and two female Cal High students, who were attacking her.

A separate, and what officials believe to be an unrelated, fight involving two male students occured earlier during brunch. Following that morning fight, another fight broke out on campus between two kids which then branched off to another, said Koehne.

"We're hearing about increased racial tensions that may have reached a head at the skate park Tuesday evening," said Koehne. "And we believe that some of the kids who were involved in that were involved in this."

Koehne also confirmed that officials heard about an incident involving white teens who brought a noose to the skate park and showed it around. "What we're hearing from some of the African American students is that they're hearing things like the 'N' word and they're getting tired of it." Tensions at the skate park also stem from a turf issue involving local kids, but not just Cal High students, he said.

"It's very important for everyone to understand that San Ramon is not immune to these kinds of issues," said Koehne. "It's not just a school issue but a community issue. We can't turn a deaf ear to it."