8 students arrested in brawl at Scott

9/8/2007

Eight students at Toledo's Scott High School were arrested yesterday after a "mini riot" broke out when students returned to the building after being evacuated because of a fire, authorities said.

Toledo police charged four female students with delinquency in connection with aggravated rioting, a felony, and two male students - one an 18-year-old charged as an adult - with violating the safe-school ordinance, a misdemeanor.

Two additional students were charged by Toledo Public Schools with safe-school ordinance violations.

The four charged with aggravated rioting were being held at the Lucas County Juvenile Justice Center. The other juveniles were released to the custody of their parents, said Patty Mazur, TPS spokesman.

The names of the juvenile students were not released by the school district or police.

The 18-year-old student was identified as Kyle Grace of 926 Oakwood Ave. He was released from the Lucas County jail on a $50 bond.

The school's about 940 students were evacuated from the building after a fire was reported just before 1 p.m.

A power outage in the Old West End near the school caused a piece of machinery at the school to stop. When it restarted because of a power surge, the machinery caught fire and produced smoke, Superintendent John Foley said.

The students were evacuated to the football stadium, where they were for at least 30 minutes, Mr. Foley said.

"As they were being led back into the building, a fight broke out and that led to other fights breaking out," he said.

Nearly 25 students were be-lieved to have been involved in the "mini riot" about 1:30 p.m. in the first-floor main hallway, Toledo police Sgt. Richard B. Murphy said.

So many students were packed into the hallway that it was difficult for police to get to the brawl to break it up, the sergeant said. The superintendent said several students in the vicinity of the fights were pushed around, but no one was seriously injured.

"The good kids went back to the classrooms and the bad kids went to jail," Sergeant Murphy said.

Fifteen Toledo police officers and six Toledo Public security officers quelled the unrest.

The power outage that led to the evacuation was caused by a failure at 12:43 p.m. of Toledo Edison equipment and affected 519 customers, Meg Adams, a spokesman for the utility, said.