OXNARD : Campus Calm After Racial Confrontation

Calm returned to Hueneme High School on Thursday, school officials said, one day after a racially motivated melee involving dozens of students was narrowly averted.

“The campus was very quiet and peaceful today,� said John Saunders, assistant principal at the Oxnard school. “We had a large presence of faculty during lunchtime and four to five police during lunch and after school.�

Six students were suspended for taking part in the confrontation during the Wednesday lunch recess, Saunders said. Two of the six were arrested, one for inciting a riot and another for assaulting an officer, he said.

That student hit a police officer and pushed his arm in an attempt to help another student escape from the officer, Saunders said. None of the students’ names were released because they are minors.

About a dozen African American and Latino students began facing off about 12:15 p.m. Wednesday in the school’s quad area, Saunders said, exchanging taunts and racial epithets. Other students heard the shouting and rushed over, Saunders said. One officer already on campus called for backup, he said.

It was tense until the four other officers arrived and restored order, said Ralph Gonzales, the district’s director of instruction, who was on campus. “It was touch and go for a while,� he said.

The incident was touched off a day earlier when an African American student running down the hall accidentally bumped into another student, said Principal Joanne Black.

“Instead of saying ‘Sorry,’ they kind of got in each other’s faces,� she said.

Other students quickly took sides and the animosity carried over to the following day at lunch, Black said. The exchange Wednesday never escalated to blows, she said.

But one student who was later found to have a hidden penknife will be recommended for expulsion, she said.