2008 Woodie Awards
High School Riot Closes Child Development Center
Child Development Center faced lockdown when ethnic tensions between students led to a riot at Grant High School last week.
Lagina Phillips, Tiffany Farmakis
Issue date: 3/16/05 Section: News
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"The fight was very horrible," said 15-year-old Grant freshman Mary Kirishyan. "All you saw was trash cans flying in the air and everyone running around, it was very scary."
Grant was under total lockdown for three hours after the noontime fight between Armenian and Hispanic students erupted into a full-blown riot involving 200-400 students, according to Deputy Police Chief Larry Manion.
"Faculty and school administration did a superb job assisting. We were very happy it ended peacefully," said Manion. "The worst injury was when one police officer got hit on the head with a golf ball."
The Child Development Center, located off Ethel Avenue at the northeast end of Valley, is only yards away from the high school. Police notified Terry Teplin, director of the Center, to keep all children inside while campus police patrolled the college's perimeter. Up to 72 children from preschool to 12 years old were at the Center at the time of the lockdown.
"The preschoolers don't know what's going on, but we've explained to the [older] children that some high school students got into a fight and we are staying inside for safety," Teplin said. "The police officers and firemen have been coming in to talk with the children."
The Child Development Center provides child-care for student-parents while they attend classes. The center has a well-rounded program for pre-school to school-aged kids and includes many different indoor and outdoor group activities.
"We called campus police around 12:30 because we heard helicopters and we were concerned," Teplin said.
