The recent string of fights involved multiple students and was attributed to "a changing of the guard," said Area Director Tom Brown. Police reported more than 16 N.P. Moss Middle students were involved in altercations Wednesday.
"In this particular case, there were five fights at the school at different times for different things," Brown said. "Sometimes when there's a change of guard, they try to test the water and (Don) Thibeaux (resource officer) made a statement. They will suffer the consequences."
Brown said students are testing the school's administration at N.P. Moss, which is headed by Principal Kim Hypolite.
As the fifth principal in seven years, Hypolite was tapped to head the school this summer, after the departure of Ken Douet, who helped the site to exit state scrutiny due to persistently low test scores.
"Since we have a new principal, they try the new principal and the new administration to see just how far they can go," Brown said.
Another reason for the problems are issues that spill from neighborhoods onto campus, he said.
"I think what I've noticed in my years of doing this, there's a lot of kids coming into the school and there's an adjustment period on such a big campus," said Robert Delafosse, school disciplinarian. "Things are running true to par as any other year. There's been no increase (in fights)."
Lt. Dwayne Arceneaux, head of the Lafayette Police Department support services, said the number of students arrested is "pretty high" on campus with three to four a day on average being booked from N.P Moss, Lafayette Middle, Northside High and Lafayette High combined.
"In every school there will be kids that lose their temper," Brown said. "What we try to do is to let them know that physical confrontation is not the best thing. Let them go to the teacher."
Fights may occur on campus, but Brown said they don't impact the classroom.
One way to ensure fights stop before they turn physical is to put adults in the halls, Delafosse said."We do some remediation before it happens and the majority of the time we have been very successful," Delafosse said.
In the unsuccessful cases, the administration investigates the severity of the fight, tries to identify the aggressor and makes a recommendation for discipline.
"We try to do an accurate investigation so that the discipline is done fairly," Delafosse said. "Once a decision is made, we will not send a kid home suspended unless a parent is aware."
Before students may return to school a parent must accompany them after the suspension. While remediation is regularly practiced, counseling is given occasionally, Delafosse said.
"If there's some other issues that might be of a more serious nature we refer them to a counselor," he said. "That of a personal nature, I don't get into it. I let the counselors talk to them. Disputes and things of that nature we try to do through peer remediation."
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