Rialto Unified school fight sparks calls for change as community gathers – San Bernardino Sun

The community gathered in support of a Rialto Unified middle school girl who was knocked out in a fight earlier this month.

In a Wednesday evening, March 26, news conference held by the IE Black Women’s Collective, Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement, Inland Empire Concerned African American Churches, and the IE Black Equity Initiative, members advocated for the family of the 14-year-old girl, who is Black, and was slammed into a table by a boy, who is Latino.

RELATED: No criminal charges filed against Rialto Unified middle school students involved in classroom tussle

They also said the girl was harassed before the fight, that it was racially charged and called upon the public to push for reforms to protect Black students.

The event at the 16th Street Seventh-day Adventist Church in San Bernardino was packed. Family members of the girl did not name her because of privacy concerns, NaShaun Neil, an attorney representing the family, said during the news conference.

A video taken by students Monday, March 10, showing a fight between two eight graders in a classroom at Jehue Middle School in Colton was posted onto several social media platforms. Though in Colton, the campus is part of the Rialto Unified School District.

The video shows a male Latino student restraining a much smaller Black female student, pressing his hand against her head and face and holding her down. He releases her and pushes her into a table. The girl then grabs a laptop off the table, spins around and throws it at the boy, who grabs her and slams her — head first — into a table. She then collapses to the floor, momentarily lying still before being helped up by another student. Students are heard shouting racial epithets during the chaos.

“She’s knocked out, bro,” one student is heard saying, as the boy who slammed the girl into the table picks up his glasses from the ground, smiles and walks away.

Colton police Sgt. Mike Sandoval has called the girl the aggressor and said she hit the boy several times in the head with a steel water bottle before filming began.

During Wednesday’s news conference, Neil said the video only showed one moment in time and doesn’t address several facts that lead to the fight.

“Why are we here?” Neil asked. “It is because we want our children to be safe in schools we want our children to be safe from sexual harassment.”

The male student is known as the school bully and had spent the morning harassing the female student and her friend by making lewd motions with a water bottle and stealing the girl’s pencil, he alleged.

Neil said the teacher, who was in the room, took the water bottle away but did not address the other aggressions.

“No kid should have to fight for themselves because the adult in the room fell asleep at the wheel,” Neil said.

Both students were arrested and cited, the female student on suspicion of felony assault with a deadly weapon and the boy on suspicion of misdemeanor battery.

However, charges were not filed by the office of San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson, who said in a Tuesday, March 25, statement that he hoped both students “can move on from this.”

Rialto schools spokesperson Syeda Jafri said in a statement earlier this week that she could not comment on the enrollment status of the students but said the district will keep promoting “a school climate building on a safe and nurturing environment where all our students have the opportunities to thrive.”

La’Nae Norwood, of the Inland Empire Black Women’s Collective, commended prosecutors for “getting it right this time.”

She said they don’t always do so and that advocates would continue to hold the office accountable. The community will continue to call for reform and “restorative justice,” she said.