Cross post from HatCityBLOG
UPDATE 12:00 PM The following comment from a student at DHS in response to several racist and offensive comments made by others regarding the incident could shed light on the underlying issue at the school.
no one cant judge dhs now if they dont know the whole story…. were not idiotic ethnic groups either. we stand up for our race and what we beleive in. no one told the dominicans to try and bum rush blacks, no body was thinking about the spanish boys until they decided to come after us. i know the whole story so what some of you people need to do is actually figure out the story in order to understand the meaning of the fights. DHS is now segregated !!! all do to dominicans and blacks!!! we standing up for our pride and we are also defending our lives. if a group of people were planning to fight you then yes, you would do the same everybody else did yesterday!!!
UPDATE 11:00: Here’s Mark Langlois take on the incident (Danbury Patch):
A series of fights broke out Wednesday, and the school suspended 10 students who were involved.
“The individuals involved were disciplined or suspended,” said Schools Superintendent Sal Pascarella, Ed.D. “We’ll look into any other things that went on, but we already identified the main people involved.”
Pascarella said it all started with a stupid comment, followed by more words, which turned into a fight.
“We don’t think it was gang-related,” Pascarella said. Once it started, staff patrolled the halls, as did members of the Danbury Police Department. “We want a unified front to stop this nonsense.”
Pascarella said it isn’t as though the school system is alone working on this fight. He said Ingrid Alvarez-DiMarzo, executive director of the Hispanic Center of Greater Danbury is working on it, as is Rev. Ivan Pitts of the New Hope Baptist Church. He said the Danbury Police Department patroled the parking lots to make sure nothing started up again there.
“There were no weapons, no injuries,” Pascarella said. “We really all work together on this.”
Danbury Hispanic Center Executive Director asked students to remain calm and un-involved.
UPDATE (Sept 29) 10:00 AM: Here’s the latest from Eileen FitzGerald at the News-Times.
Danbury High School Principal Gary Bocaccio said 10 students were suspended Wednesday after a fight broke out in the morning, the day after a Hispanic freshman and a black freshman reportedly swapped racial epithets.
Bocaccio said more students would be questioned Friday, since school is closed Thursday for Rosh Hashana.
The students were suspended for varying amounts of time based on their involvement in the incident, but there were no weapons, no criminal charges and no offenses that could lead to expulsion, Bocaccio said Wednesday night.
He said there was an altercation Tuesday between two freshmen, a Dominican student and a black student.
Some other students told school officials that there might be some trouble, based on the incident, and staff asked to speak with some students Wednesday morning at the main office, Bocaccio said.
It was near the office that the fight broke out between the group of Latino and black students, Bocaccio said.
“The fight was broken up quickly. There were some scratches that nurses attended to immediately,” he said. “We determined who was the instigator.”
UPDATE 11:45 PM: From what little I learned so far late tonight, multiple sources informed me that the fight seems to be between the Dominicans and African-Americans. With Thursday being a teacher in-service day, people are concerned that the fights that occurred at school could spill out into the streets…the most important thing now is for students to CALM DOWN!
I’ll have more soon…
Just received some very disturbing news regarding racial violence at Danbury High School today.
Here’s the video of two of several incidents that occurred at the High School today that’s gone viral.
The Hispanic Center posted the following message to students at DHS on Facebook:
This post goes out to my Danbury High School youth! I want to talk to you, but more than talk I need you to listen to what I will ask of you. To the members of Trinidad I will say Dominicana Soy! But I will not excuse nor tolerate the use of ethnic pride for violence. I recognize your need for acknowledgement and respect. I am saddened by the incidents at DHS today. I’ve had the opportunity to meet with some of you this afternoon. Thank you for listening and thank you for taking the shirts off. For those that I haven’t seen today-hear me out. Trinidad you have an open invitation to see me, talk to me and meet with me. I’m putting the ball in your court. My doors are open for conflict resolution. Use me as your vehicle. Allow me to hear and better understand what you are going through. No reprimands no accusations. But I need you to put weapons down-I need you to not use violence and gang intimidation tactics. Allow me to help you resolve this conflict. I will hear and not judge your side of the story. But I will ask of you this-no violence-call the fight off-do not allow one more friend to get hurt. To all other friends, please if you have access to DHS student community at home, in the community or any place else or even if you don’t let’s lead by example. Please share this post and help me reach every DHS student today.
Peace.
Ingrid
Executive Director
Hispanic Center of Greater Danbury
Centro Hispano (203) 798-2855
I don’t have all the details on what happened today but one thing is for certain…physical violence is NOT the answer. Danbury High has seen it’s fair share of racial incidents in the past and the last thing this city needs is violence based on race spreading at the school.
I’ll update everyone once I get more info…if any students have information on what happened or have video of any fights that broke out today, please feel free to contact me at hatcityblog@yahoo.com or @hatcityblog on Twitter.
If your a student and are pissed off over what happened, PLEASE PLEASE take a DEEP breath and think things through before acting on your impulse. With tomorrow being a teacher in-service day, we don’t want what happened at DHS to spill into the streets on Thursday.
The Hispanic Center is on high alert attempting to reach out to any DHS student who were effected by today’s events. Contact them at 203.798.2855, You can also reach the Center on Facebook by clicking here.
PLEASE think b4 you act!
I agree with Danny M. I’m so happy that no one that I really care for goes to this dump. On top of that you have stupid ass comment that are racial as hell! I am Dominican and i don’t think that I’m better than anyone here, but racists rude ass people are the main reasons to why things like this happen in the United States!!! THANK GOD I DON’T LIVE IN CONNECTICUT!!
Nice going DHS!!! You tell the students how disappointed you are in them for ruining the school’s good reputation and embarrassing you! My child better not ever be afraid to tell me something that’s going on at that school because of how you treated the kids today! The ones fighting weren’t even there to hear your speech because they were suspended!!!!!
Judging DHS by their handling of the racial tension and the spelling/grammar in the above comment by a student, I am very VERY relieved that my children are in an entirely separate school district.
Thank you mike, for sticking up for me and my fellow DHS students not involved in the fights. Now if only people would take your advice…..
Let me just say that even here in Bridgeport, going to school there, there was racial issues between Mexicans and Blacks, With Blacks calling my mexican friend a “beaner” and such and laughing at her, while she had her head down was a awful thing to see. But these same Mexicans say the N word behind black people’s backs as well, so it goes both ways, I guess. It exists, and people want to ignore racism, especially white people, mexicans and blacks have a huge brawl in California in gangs. Mexicans don’t really have any morals or values, they come to this country to take our jobs, have numerous kids, everytime you see a Mexican girl she has 5 kids toddling behind her. Then they want to OUR country and look down upon us, I’ve been to Mexico, it’s dirt poor and filthy with slums… So why do you think because your Hispanic you are better?
I just want to say thank you to the newstimes for looking into this situation at the high school. As a parent, we are on the outside and rely on what our children say when the school officials say nothing. I don’t think this blog is condoning the incident. On behalf of the parents thank you for hearing us and letting us know what is going on up on that hill!
You talk about sticking up for your race and that’s great. However you lack the intelligence to do it in a civilized manner. Thinking it’s o.k. to bring it into an education building. Maybe that’s the way you were brought up. Most people with any common sense don’t act like this. Join the military if you think you are so tuff. Stop jeopardizing others.
How idiotic. This “feud” between the two ethnic groups at Danbury High School are making all of the students there look like a bunch of asinine, primitive savages. It’s giving us an extremely bad reputation. These fights are extremely pointless and stupid. What are we still in? Middle school? Grow up and stop acting like petulant children. Why can’t we all just come to school to learn and not have to deal with violence and harassment?
I was in DHS in the mid 70′s during the riots. What I would first like to say is it’s important to remember that the vast majority of kids on both sides aren’t involved in these things and are there for their education and to make the most of their HS years. What I would suggest they do as soon as they run into these things is to walk away. Don’t get caught up in the group mentality because before you know it..you might be in a riot yourself. These things very quickly turn into that and black on white on spanish or whomever. And just your presence there gives the appearance of groups ganging up on each other. What administrators and police have GOT to do is stop these inital groups from forming and roaming the halls. A friend of mine from back then had her head smashed in and had to have a plate put in. Talk about ruining your high school years. It’s sad to hear of these problems but race will always be an issue for some their whole lives. And they’ll carry it down to their children as well. Again though, I think the vast majority aren’t like this and the best thing they can do is to NOT become onlookers. Or they might find themselves in a very bad position if this escalates quickly.
Seriously. Get an Iphone kids, because your video quality is awful. Just saying…Iphone.
That being said. Danbury High school is a great place to go to school. Now, I did graduate 10 years ago, but there has always been fights and there always will be!
I don’t know why the media is making such a big deal of this. I understand there were racial issues involved but it’s nothing new when groups of boys get together. They are little boys, and that’s the first problem.
They do not need to be suspended. I never understood suspension. Oh take the kids OUT of school, that will teach them. So they can sit home all day on Facebook and watch TV. They need to stay in school(hell, in school suspension) and be educated better so they can get their priorities straight. They need to maybe then be enrolled in mandatory school counseling.
It’s a fight people. Danbury always gets a bad rap for stuff like this. But I don’t see anyone videoing an AP Psychology class and making that go viral?
the editing of this article leaves a lot to be desired, it reads essentially that two (2) ethnic groups were involved, yet I count at least five (5) groups including “Dominicans, Blacks, Hispanics, African Americans,Trinidadians and Latino’s”
is the article singling out two of these groups or is it merely a misprint?
how are we to decipher this?
no one cant judge dhs now if they dont know the whole story…. were not idiotic ethnic groups either. we stand up for our race and what we beleive in. no one told the dominicans to try and bum rush blacks, no body was thinking about the spanish boys until they decided to come after us. i know the whole story so what some of you people need to do is actually figure out the story in order to understand the meaning of the fights. DHS is now segregated !!! all do to dominicans and blacks!!! we standing up for our pride and we are also defending our lives. if a group of people were planning to fight you then yes, you would do the same everybody else did yesterday!!! so when you have your facts right then say something.
This is very sad. I live in Wilton and find Danbury as a great place. These kids got to come together in peace rather than violence. Remeber that after high school, you will be in an environment with people from all over the world because the United States is still the garden salad of the world and the best country to live in.
PAX
Kevin
So parents are supposed to actually send their children to this chaotic bedlam? Who the heck do the people running this school think they are? I am sick of all these Government people talking about bullying and stopping violence when they are actually enabling it. Who the heck is “Trinidad” and why is he allowed to come to friggin school with weapons when 12 year old Boy Scouts get expelled for having pocket knives? These little delinquents are being trained to fight in packs, to use violence and use the system to get what they want. Keep pretending that thugs have “dignity” and you will reap the rewards.
why dont they just let these 2 idiotic useless groups finish each other off?
I cannot believe this is still going on. I graduated from DHS and was there in the 1970′s. You mean to tell me this is still going on. Shame on you administrators. If there are kids like this fighting then apparently they do no want an education and they are spoiling it for the others that do. Kick them out permanently and immediatly. My tax dollars should not be use for these people. With all your school board meetings you still have no control. Maybe administration should be replace. Because apparently you aren’t doing the job. If they are not citizens. Then send them home. Gary B. remembers. Lets see how good he really is and what he can do.
This is some immature High School BS… My honest opinion, stop letting all the ethnic groups stand out in crowds in the middle of the hallways. All they do is harass people that walk by and laugh at them with eachother.. this went on for the four years that I went there. They have power in numbers but many are cowards when standing alone.. eliminate the grouping and you eliminate the trash talking, and thus the fighting.