Massive brawl, 'stampede' on North Bay middle school campus sparks frustration
Parents of students at Sinaloa Middle School in Novato are fed up after the latest on-campus brawl in which a young girl was attacked by three other students.
The school held a meeting on Tuesday evening to discuss how they're working to curb violence on campus.
The meeting was standing room only for parents.
Before the meeting started, KTVU's crew was asked to leave and not told why they would not be allowed to sit in on the discussion taking place on a public school campus.
Outside the school, parents told KTVU some students are afraid to come to school.
"She's not happy to come to school somedays because she doesn't know it's going to happen," Said Jim McAlpine, a father of a student at Sinaloa. "To be a sixth grader coming to school being scared is a big, big problem."
A video of the fight sent to KTVU, which took place last Friday, shows a female student in gray pants on the ground being attacked by three other students.
The principal sent an email to parents that said students were aware the day before that a fight would happen.
"This resulted in a very large stampede of our students (several hundreds of them)rushing around the campus to seek out the fight to watch it happen. This mob grew in size as they ran through the campus, causing some students to fall and literally be run over by others."
In that same email, the principal added: "Please know that severe consequences have been issued for the students culpable of causing physical harm to the other student."
Other parents told KTVU their students would step in to break up the fights, but they're scared.
"We have boys who have volunteered information, they would get in there. They would help, but in today's society you can't they were worried about getting in trouble themselves," said Gina, the mom of a student.
But parents said this is far from the only incident of violence on campus this school year.
Jim Mcalpine said the recent sting of violence is nothing new for the school.
His older daughter, a former student at the school, was a victim of violence on campus.
"Honestly, from my perspective, the school didn't even deal with it at all," McAlpine said. "They brushed it under the rug. This was three years ago, so for three years I've been watching systemic violence."
Parents say nothing is being done to address the issue. And after the meeting, parents said they felt just as flustered as when they walked in.
School officials would only take questions written down on index cards and those questions were filtered so they only answered questions they wanted to.
"I feel like the school is trying to address the issue in a way that's not direct," McAlpine said. "They don't want to make any admissions. They're trying to avoid saying a lot of things I believe they care but I believe they care a lot more about their reputation."