Concern rises as Duncanville ISD addresses extra security, online threats
DUNCANVILLE — Passion Neal's family went to John Kincaide Stadium last Friday night to watch the top-ranked Duncanville High School Panthers take on the South Oak Cliff Bears. She said there were a series of fights.
"It was so intense that my 13-year-old that was sitting with me at the game, she ended up having a panic attack, and we had to take her and leave," Neal said.
Her goal was to get her daughter to safety, but Neal also had an older teenage girl who was a cheerleader. First, it was to get her panicked youngster, who is homeschooled, out of the stadium.
"At one point, we were in the restroom, and kids just stormed in, girls and boys, jumping on toilets and sinks," Neal said. "Because there was a fight breaking out within the concession stands."
They got her home safely. That wasn't the case for David Washington after the game. Dallas Police got called to a shooting in the 8000 block of Polk Street near West Wheatland Road just before 11 pm. A 16-year-old suspect shot the 17-year-old, police said.
Washington did not survive the gunshot, which investigators said was connected to a fight. Police arrested his alleged killer on Monday. The teen boy faces a murder charge.
Wednesday, Duncanville Independent School District leaders spoke out to calm frayed nerves. Since the deadly shooting, online threats have increased parents' fear.
"Parents' first charge is to ensure that they're sending their children to a safe environment. And we certainly take that extremely serious here in Duncanville," Superintendent T. Lamar Goree said.
The district paused two middle school football games this week for security reasons.
Police chief Mitchell Lambert said the district would increase its police presence at schools as a precautionary measure. Lambert said the system had not received any direct threats.
"Now the threats that we were receiving is something that's being recycled through local communities is basically copy and paste at this point," Lambert said.
He said two fight videos with alleged connections to Duncanville have not been proven to be schools in the district.
One video shared on social media shows multiple students cornering a teenage male in a corner. A girl in the video said, "He talking about David." The punches and kicks begin a few seconds later, and the same girl yells, "Break it up!"
"I believe that throughout history in the school district, in fact when I was in high school, or even in school, that acts of violence including fighting occurred," Lambert said.
In the second video, students are recording a fight on their cell phones as the melee moves from one side of the hallway to the other. One staff member can be seen in a sea of students trying to stop the fight.
"I don't believe that there's an increase or decrease. I believe that it's steady at this time. I do know that we just have a greater knowledge of it because the heightened state of fear that the country is involved right now when it comes to school violence," Lambert said.
Neal isn't buying the "kids will be kids" argument. At least, she said that's not the way her children are raised.
"If you let kids just be kids and do whatever they want, of course they will," Neal said. "But if you let them know and there's discipline behind what they're doing that's not right, and you're rewarding what is right, I feel like things change."
Neal said a PTA meeting at the school was canceled, too. She said parents want to be a part of the solution if the district would allow them.
"I have been asking, how can parents help because I realize maybe the school can't do it all on their own," she said.
Her 13-year-old daughter has sworn off football games after last Friday.