Several fights occurred at MHS within a single week. The fights were unrelated to each other, according to Principal Phil Morales.
According Morales, the students involved in the fights have received disciplinary action. There needs to be a discussion about addressing these students and their behaviors before problems escalate, Morales said.
“Disciplinary action has been taken with all students involved and we are hoping to continue our part in the investigation and see what other further actions need to be taken,” Morales said. “I think that there needs to be a discussion about addressing student behaviors and not waiting so long for their behaviors to go unnoticed or not addressed.”
According to Morales, the large crowd prevented admin from intervening. By the time they managed to get through, the fight had already ended, Morales said.
“It may appear like we weren’t around but we were there,” Morales said. “We were there trying to get into it, but by the time we got through all the students, the fight had already broken up.”
The administration is trying to prevent similar instances from occurring by making an effort to be more visible on campus, according to Assistant Principal Skylar Draeger. The administrators are also trying to improve communications between them and the security guards, Draeger said.
“Admin is making an effort to be more visible, but we’ve been a little short staffed because we just lost an administrator, so that makes it harder,” Draeger said. “We’re making an effort to be on campus before school, at break, at lunch, [and] after school and to improve communications with [the] security guards.”
According to Morales, Milpitas Police officers were called to MHS the following week. This was done to make sure the campus was safe, Morales said.
“Because of the fights that happened, I felt it necessary to show strength in numbers and make sure that the campus was safe because we had heard reports of possible fights happening,” Morales said. “We just wanted to be prepared if anything happened so we’d have people out and ready.”
According to Morales, students can expect to see more police officers on campus working with MHS security. The police will be acting on the needs of the school, Morales said.
“I hope that we would have more officers on campus because it’s always nice to have officers here,” Morales said. “[The] officers would be assisting security [and] acting on the needs of the school.”
The presence of officers helps dispel fights from happening, according to Assistant Principal Draeger. The officers will be called if the staff is shorthanded or to dispel a crowd of large students, Draeger said.
“The visual presence of the police helps quell stuff,” Draeger said. “What happens is the police are called if we feel short handed or if a large number of students gathers [because] the police can help dispel that crowd.”
According to senior Emmanuel Mariano, the presence of police officers doesn’t bother him because he knows that they’re on campus to prevent him from being hurt.
“I don’t mind the officers,” Mariano said. “I know that they’re here to stop and prevent some students from hurting me or anyone else on campus.”
According to freshman Emily Than, having police officers on campus makes sense. However, students may try to trick the staff into calling officers, Than said.
“I like the idea of police officers helping [security] and it makes sense to have them here,” Than said. “I just think that students could easily exploit the staff into calling officers by lying and just saying a fight is going to happen when it really isn’t.”