Parents of students at Rock Island High School have expressed concerns after they say several fights broke out on campus Thursday.
Rock Island Police responded to the high school on Thursday morning. Parents are saying fights began at the beginning of the day and continued after school hours. Videos of the fights are spreading on social media.
Local 4 News spoke with Jasmine Jones, a parent of three. She is originally from Michigan but settled in the Quad City area in 2006.
Jones has one teenager who attends Rock Island High School.
“So we came here so they can have a stable environment and to be around the diversity. They love it here. They don’t want to move,” Jones said.
But yesterday, Jones began to worry about the safety of her daughter.
“Yesterday I was at work. I get a phone call about 11:30 or a text message from my daughter saying, ‘Mom I’m scared. There’s a riot here at school. Everybody’s fighting, I don’t know what to do. Everyone’s fighting. It’s a war zone,'” said Jones, who is frustrated.
“So there’s no repercussions…so kids are getting into a fight one day… may get a little repercussion but then they’re coming back to school the next day and getting into another fight or brawl,” Jones said.
Immediately after hearing from her daughter, Jones tried contacting the school, but was not given much help.
“I’m calling for the safety concern of my daughter, I’m looking to be told, ‘Hey, there’s a situation, we’re addressing it,’ you know, diffuse me,” she said. “But instead they didn’t. They lied to me. They told me my daughter was a liar and if I don’t believe them then I need to believe my daughter. Then they rudely decided to hang up on me.”
Her daughter says some fights were planned in advance.
“Everybody on Snapchat is like, ‘Who can be the first to record it?’ And then it’s a message getting sent from school district to school district,” Jones said.
Others in the community tell her that this is just an ordinary day at the high school.
“They say that this is normal, that this is typical normal behavior, and that I need to learn to accept that this is normal in Rock Island. And if I want a better school I need to be quiet and move to Bettendorf,” Jones said.
As a parent, Jones plans to partner with others in the community to reduce violence in the school district.
“Start with PTA meetings… start with volunteering… be a security… let’s be hands-on. Let’s get in there and shed some light,” she said.
Rumors spread that a gun made it onto the school property and another person was tased. Rock Island Police told Local 4 News that is not true.
Local 4 News reached out to the school district about what happened but they declined to comment.