Students Under Arrest After High School Melee
CHICAGO (STMW) - Thirteen Foreman High School students are facing charges following a melee that erupted in a hallway at the Northwest Side school Thursday afternoon.
The incident happened about 1 p.m. in a third floor hallway of the school, 3235 N. Leclaire Ave., according to a Jefferson Park District police lieutenant.
It started out as a spontaneous fight only between students but school security officers on the scene called the Chicago Police because of the size of the fracas.
Police said it may have started when the kids started to bump into each other, which turned into punching and shoving, before escalating into students throwing punches.
"It snowballed,'' the lieutenant said.
Police arrived but the fight continued and one tactical officer was knocked down.
"It sounds like he was hit in the head,'' the lieutenant said. "He was in the crowd, trying to break it up and the next thing he knows he's on the floor. He didn't see it coming.''
While there were no weapons used, the officer suffered some "numbness and tingling'' and was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge where he was in fair condition, the lieutenant said.
An ambulance was also called for a female student who suffered a possible anxiety attack because of the brawl. It was not known immediately if she would be taken to a hospital.
A female teacher was also injured, but she did not require hospitalization.
One student, who the lieutenant described as possibly the instigator, was also taken to a hospital for an unidentified injury, but he was on his way back to the Jefferson Park District station to be processed, with twelve others male students who were also under arrest.
The thirteen face charges of reckless conduct, obstructing a police officer, battery to a police officer and battery to a teacher, according to the lieutenant, who did not know why the fight began.
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