Valley High to remain under heightened security next week

Heightened security will remain in place next week at West Des Moines Valley High School until tensions settle, after racially charged messages on social media provoked the first of several brawls Thursday at the school.

Roughly one-quarter of Valley's students skipped school Friday, while four to five West Des Moines police cars patrolled the high school grounds that morning. District spokeswoman Elaine Watkins-Miller said the extra police security will continue until officials feel that the school environment has returned to normal.

A threat posted Thursday night on social media said someone was "planning to shoot the black kids at school," however police don't believe it to be credible, Steven Arges, West Des Moines police spokesman, said Friday.

"One of the things social media did was cause this to become larger than it may have otherwise been," Arges said. "But, obviously anything that's said has to be taken seriously."

School officials will continue to gauge the need for heightened security by talking with students and monitoring social media, Watkins-Miller said.

Moving forward into the next week, Watkins-Miller said school officials, "hope (students) recognize they can come to school and continue their learning."

A social media post with Confederate and American flags apparently helped provoke the first fight between eight black and white students at about 8:20 a.m. Thursday in the cafeteria. Valley staff eventually quelled the situation. Two other fights occurred in the afternoon, each involving two students.

Two videos of Thursday's fights were posted on YouTube, a popular video-sharing website. One of the videos was taken down because it violated YouTube policies. The other shows a male running after another male and hitting him.

Principal Tim Miller said the last two fights weren't directly related to the initial racially charged social media post.

"It was a heightened emotional day here at Valley High School yesterday, no question," said Miller, who became Valley's principal on July 1, 2014. "When you're in a school atmosphere and things happen, they can build. But the kids involved in the other two altercations were not acquaintances or involved with the (first) kids."

Students involved in Thursday's fights were sent home while school officials and police continued the investigation. No arrests had been made nor school discipline meted out by Friday night.

"It's still under investigation," Arges said. "Once all of the information is collected, a charging decision will be made."

READ:Police patrol Valley High after 3 fights break out

The school's harassment policy does not specify how students should be disciplined for discrimination. It states that acts of harassment or bullying "may" be grounds for discipline, which could include a warning, suspension or expulsion.

The fights and threats made many students nervous Friday. Valley has about 2,000 students in 10th through 12th grade, 26 percent of whom are minorities.

School officials said about 75 percent of Valley's students were at school Friday. The school's average attendance rate is 97 percent, officials said.

Although she had misgivings about coming to school Friday morning, 16-year-old Tatyana Davis' father dropped her off at Valley High.

"I don't really feel safe coming to school," said Davis, an African-American teen whose family moved to Iowa from Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"I thought, you know, you could talk to the wrong person, and they're going to go off on you," Davis said, adding that she has felt a greater sense of racism in Iowa than in her former southern home.

Drake Grossklaus, 16, said it was "a little sketchy" coming to school Friday morning, noting that the school parking lot was half full, and four of his friends stayed home. Grossklaus, who is white, said he has heard there were threats against white students as well.

"It was all over Twitter," Grossklaus said.

But Grossklaus said he doesn't think there's a glaring race problem at Valley. Thursday's fights were just "weird" circumstances, he said.

Valley High School has had race-related problems in its past.

In May 1996, tensions ran high after KKK and other racist insignia were etched into tables. Some students were disciplined after weapons were found.

Parents and administrators worked with Wayne Ford of Urban Dreams to find ways to resolve the issues before they got out of hand.

Two years later, other race-related fights broke out, and again meetings were held with students and others to work out problems.

Two other fights occurred at Valley this week, but they appear unrelated to Thursday's incidents, Watkins-Miller, the district spokeswoman, said.

"All high schools in the metro area are microcosms of society as a whole, and to say that we don't have these issues would not be responsible of us, because it exists in society. ... We have to work with students and their parents in learning how to deal with them," she said.

Harassment, bullying policy

Harassment or bullying based on a person's race is prohibited within school policy. But it doesn't specify how students should be disciplined for violating that policy.

According to the school's student policy and student handbook:

• Acts of harassment or bullying may be treated as grounds for discipline. Discipline may include suspension or expulsion of a student, suspension or termination of an employee's employment, and/or exclusion of a volunteer from district activities or premises.

• The district will take reasonable corrective action to address any discrimination, harassment or bullying. Corrective actions designed to remedy violations of this policy may include disciplinary measures such as warning, reprimand, suspension, expulsion, discharge or exclusion of a perpetrator.