DeSoto & Duncanville High School Students Brawl After Basketball Game

UPDATE: DeSoto ISD announced Wednesday night the basketball team will forfeit its last two regular season games after Tuesday's fight with Duncanville High.

The school district released a statement saying, "In addition the forfeiting those games, the district will issue game suspensions for those involved in the incident.  As an additional measure, at least one student-athlete has been suspended indefinitely from the program."

DUNCANVILLE (CBSDFW.COM) - A basketball game between DeSoto High School and Duncanville High School turned into a fist fight on Tuesday night. Video of the brawl was posted on social media shortly after the game ended on Duncanville's home court.

Jabari Johnson is a former professional athlete and creator of The Heads Up! Foundation, which mentors DFW youth through sports programs. Along with footage of the fight, Johnson said, "I hate we had to witness this ugly scene tonite there's no place for this in the game."

A crowd of students from both teams can be seen engaged in fisticuffs as adults -- coaches, security officers and others -- work to separate the high school basketball players from each other. It is not known how the fight started, but it could have a lasting impact for the teams as this season moves forward.

"Players suffered injuries & its likely that suspensions will impact both teams," Johnson added. Neither school has said which students could be facing punishment, what that punishment might be, or the extent of any injuries sustained during the nasty brawl, which left children in the crowd in tears.

Tiffanie Blackmon-Jones with the DeSoto Independent School District released a statement about the fight. "DeSoto ISD is in the process of reviewing what happened," she stated on Wednesday. "District administration is working to determine who was involved and evaluating how to prevent it from occurring again."

"We are working with Duncanville ISD's athletics administrators and school administrators in addition to UIL to determine where discipline is applicable and what next steps are in order," DeSoto ISD's statement continued. "We are working to follow all processes in place as based on local and state requirements when an incident of this nature occurs."

"DeSoto ISD does not condone the behavior," the district's statement said.

Meanwhile, a statement from Lari Barager with the Duncanville Independent School District echoed DeSoto ISD.

"We do not condone the actions of the young men involved in the altercation," Barager said on Wednesday. "Duncanville ISD school administrators are working closely with DeSoto ISD to review what happened. The review process will identify who was involved and determine appropriate discipline. Once final, the results will be reported to the UIL."

"We are also taking steps to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future," Barager continued.

The brawl came right after DeSoto defeated Duncanville. DeSoto had just a two-point lead at halftime, but then dominated the second half of the game for a 67-46 win. DeSoto is set to play again on Friday night, against Nimitz High School. Duncanville also plays next on Friday night, against MacArthur High School.

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