STARKVILLE – Tony McGee has spent enough time as a school district administrator to know a simple truth about fights breaking out between students.
You never like to see it, and you do what you can to prevent it. But from time to time, it happens.
Thursday’s ruckus outside the high school, however, was a new one for the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District superintendent.
“In my 30-some-odd years in education, that’s the first time I’ve seen adults insert themselves in that,” he told The Dispatch.
Starkville police arrested five suspects, including three adults, for allegedly participating in a fight in the carpool line in front of the high school. Lacandria Elliot, 38, and Ciara Bell and D’Zel Dickerson, both 18, and two juveniles each face a misdemeanor fighting charge.
Two others, including an adult and a juvenile, have outstanding fighting warrants for their involvement, according to police.
SOCSD Public Information Officer Haley Montgomery said a fight first broke out inside the school between two students. After school staff stopped that fight, both participants were required to leave campus.
After one of those students exited the building, a second altercation erupted, this time involving “non-students,” Montgomery said.
The campus operated with heightened security measures the rest of Thursday after district personnel became aware of a social media threat that someone might bring a firearm on campus that afternoon. Montgomery said officials weren’t aware of any connection between the threat and the fight, but the “timing was in close proximity.”
A Starkville police press release said the investigation into the fight “did not uncover any credible threats on social media.”
McGee said Friday schools typically see an “elevation” of fights after extended school breaks. SOCSD students returned Monday from a two-week fall intersession.
“We tend to get a lot of bleedover from the community into the schools (during those times),” McGee said. “We just need to do a good job of managing that. … We just have to have an intentional focus on it. That’s where we are.”
In a video statement posted to the school district’s Facebook page Thursday night, McGee said he was embarrassed by the fight but does not believe it is an accurate reflection of the entire student body or community. He also issued a warning against future incidents.
“I want to say to our community that we do not tolerate this type of behavior,” he said in the video. “If you come on one of our campuses and act inappropriately, or with bad intent, it will not be tolerated. … We will not allow individual poor behavior to prevent us from providing the quality education that our students deserve.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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