Troopers respond to school fights
REDSTONE TWP. – Four separate fistfights, three of them apparently related, resulted in state police being called to the Intermediate Unit 1 Education Center at Colonial on Thursday. Dr. Larry O’Shea, the executive director of IU1, said that while there is a police officer at the school, the decision was made to bring in assistance from the state police after the second incident.
“It is extremely unusual to have so many fights. This is probably twice as many fights as we’ve had all year,” O’Shea said.
O’Shea said there were no weapons involved in any of the fights and none of the students involved had to be sent for medical attention. O’Shea said it was the decision of the initial responding state trooper to call for additional officers. A total of three state police units responded to the scene.
O’Shea said the incidents began with the students verbally antagonizing one another, resulting in a physical fight.
“There were two fights between the same two students. One kid involved in those two seemed to set up the second fight. The third fight was unrelated,” O’Shea said.
O’Shea said the students involved in the first fight were appropriately separated, but as school ended, they coincidentally ended up in the same hallway and began fighting again.
O’Shea said the cause of the fights is being looked into in an effort to resolve the problem.
The Education Center at Colonial houses students in grades 7-12 from the Albert Gallatin, Brownsville, Connellsville, Frazier, Laurel Highlands and Uniontown school districts. The alternative school includes a strong counseling component, according to the IU’s Website. The program has been recognized as a model for alternative education in Pennsylvania.