CERES -- Nachos are a popular high school cafeteria menu item, but they made for messy ammunition during a food fight last week at Central Valley High School that led to several suspensions, including one that will force a senior to miss graduation ceremonies.
School administrators Monday still were investigating the end-of-the-school-year incident, which drew five citations from Ceres police.
Taking advantage of the last full school day of the year, students picked up nachos and french fries and launched them at each other. Sliced fruit and milk cartons also were thrown.
Cell phone text messages helped spread the word earlier in the week. Though administrators were tipped off and beefed up their presence in the cafeteria, piles of food still became airborne. It lasted less than two minutes.
"I saw food flying through the air. Milk and food was all over," said an employee who was there but wished to remain anonymous for fear of losing his or her job. "I was nervous. We wanted to stop it, but no, I didn't feel unsafe."
After reviewing surveillance video, Principal Fred Van Vleck said it appeared the 100 or so students involved weren't aiming at particular students or adults. They were "just throwing" food.
A few students slipped and fell on the slick cafeteria floor, but Van Vleck didn't know of any serious injuries and said there was no physical damage to the school.
"Real honestly, I was disappointed," he said.
The food fight damaged several yearbooks, which cost as much as $90 each. It took custodians hours to clean up, he said.
Van Vleck said eight or nine students already have been suspended and a handful of others face suspension -- some for throwing food, others for helping organize the fight via text messages. Five students were cited by police for either vandalism or refusal to disperse after the commotion spilled into a hallway.
Suspended senior not in fight
The suspension will cost one senior -- the only senior suspended in the incident -- her chance to participate in the 3-year-old school's first commencement Thursday.
Senior Lahna Dixon, 17, was studying for a final with her chemistry teacher during the lunch period. She said she received a text message encouraging students to join in on the prank, but did not forward the original message.
She did say she texted friends about the fight, but only to let them know they should stay away from the cafeteria. Van Vleck argued that any texting contributed to the skirmish.
Dixon will get her diploma, but won't walk across the stage with her classmates.
Dixon and mom Vikki Dias said the suspension was unfair because she wasn't even there and that forbidding her from attending graduation was wrong.
Though Dixon's three-day suspension ends Wednesday, the last day of school, any discipline handed out the day before a weekend adds two additional days of suspension from school-related activities, according to Central Valley's Student Handbook.
"You'd have to suspend the whole school if you're just looking at the text messaging," Dias said. "What (Van Vleck's) doing is wrong. She earned (her graduation)."
Students have started a petition to get Dixon reinstated and Dias vowed to fight Van Vleck's decision with a lawyer.
This is the third end-of-the-year incident reported at a Northern San Joaquin Valley high school that has led to punishment. They occur from time to time, and are usually inspired by seniors.
"They think it's the end of the year and there are no consequences," said Jay Simmonds, spokesman for the Ceres Unified School District.
About 40 Patterson High seniors vandalized the campus in late April, shoving forks into the lawn, pummeling the school with paintballs and greasing locks with lard. Those who came forward were given the option of beautifying the campus -- planting trees and plants on campus -- rather than suspension.
All Gustine seniors punished
Officials at Gustine High have required all seniors to do community service and pay a $100 fine, and some students could face criminal charges, after an incident that caused the death of a pig and $4,500 in damage. The campus had been covered in graffiti, textbooks were destroyed, buildings were broken into and the agriculture program's animals were let out of their pens. One pig broke a leg and had to be put down.
As Modesto City Schools officials plan for graduation this week, district Administrator Jim Pfaff couldn't recall a senior or end-of-the-year prank in the past few decades.
He said efforts have been helped by the addition of a passage in the student conduct code specifying that such pranks will result in the loss of participation in graduation activities such as the senior grad trip or commencement.
Bee staff writer Michelle Hatfield can be reached at mhatfield@modbee.com or 578-2339.
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