HOUSTON – A man who claimed to have a supervisory role with students at Houston Independent School District's Lamar High School contacted Channel 2 with concerns about the number of fights that have taken place on campus this year.
"I feel this needs to be exposed. Place pressure on administrators to clean the behavior up," the man, who asked to remain anonymous, wrote via email.
He also provided grainy cellphone video of a brawl that appears to include at least two female students.
HISD confirmed the fight happened on campus last Friday and that some students were disciplined.
The man's note refers to the fight as being the third fight within a week. HISD disputes that claim and reported fight data to the Texas Education Agency paints a better picture of the River Oaks school.
"Lamar High School campus administrators are aware of a video clip that displays a fight that took place on Friday afternoon," said Holly Huffman, an HISD spokesperson. "The matter was handled administratively and the students in question were disciplined per the HISD Student Code of Conduct. The incident was among nine fights that have been reported at Lamar High School for the 2014-2015 school year. In each case, the students were disciplined per the Code of Conduct. The safety of our students and staff at HISD is always our top priority. We do not tolerate or condone fighting. Students who engage in such behavior are disciplined appropriately per the HISD Student Code of Conduct."
Channel 2 Investigates Robert Arnold has done extensive reporting on school fighting.
Number crunching revealed that last year, HISD's Lamar High School had 16 reported fights, below the average of 23, using data from more than 100 high schools in Houston, Ft. Bend, Brazoria, Montgomery and Galveston counties.