Here's a story, in the NY Times, about today's High School riot incident, with more Information:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/19/ny.../19fights.html
November 19, 2005
In Mount Vernon, Fights Close a High School Early
By LISA W. FODERARO
A series of fights broke out at Mount Vernon High School in southern Westchester County on Friday, prompting school officials to lock down the school shortly after lunch and send students home early.
The fights, four in all, appeared to start after a dispute over a cellphone, said Terrance Raynor, the city's chief of police. They were not related to recent tensions between young people in Mount Vernon and nearby New Rochelle, which stemmed from two shootings last month, he said.
A police officer was scratched during a scuffle with one student, a 16-year-old girl, who was charged with second-degree assault. Another student, a 16-year-old boy, was charged with disorderly conduct.
Though the high school had been fairly calm in recent months, Mount Vernon - a city of 68,000 that borders the Bronx - has been the setting of numerous fights and shootings in recent years, both in and out of school. A number have involved gangs.
Two years ago, there were four shootings in three days. One victim was a 12-year-old boy shot in the back while playing basketball in a schoolyard.
"These things tend to come in waves," said the mayor, Ernest D. Davis. "It's hard enough growing up, and then you have to deal with guns and a fluid population and the natural consequences of being young. Some don't have strong family backgrounds. All of that plays into how they act."
None of the fights on Friday involved weapons, the police said. Students must pass through metal detectors as they enter the school.
The fistfight thought to be over a cellphone occurred at 11:30 a.m. in a school courtyard. It was followed by another fight in the school's cafeteria, though police are not sure what prompted that one. At 11:45, school officials instituted a lockdown, which involves closing the school's entrances and exits.
At some point, a student pulled a fire alarm. While students gathered outside, there were more "skirmishes," Chief Raynor said. He said all the fights involved a couple of students each, with several onlookers.
Even though the atmosphere was calming down by 12:30, according to Chief Raynor, the Board of Education decided to dismiss students an hour early.
At least one student was injured during the fighting, a boy who needed two stitches after being punched above one eye.
Chief Raynor said that his department would assign extra police officers to the high school on Monday morning. He said that two officers were regularly posted at the high school, a sprawling complex on California Road.
He said there were reports that friction between two groups of students - one group African-American and the other of West Indian background - had led to the initial fight, but he said the police had not confirmed that. According to the 2000 census, 60 percent of Mount Vernon's population is black.