Officers respond to fight with about a hundred students

NOW: Officers respond to fight with about a hundred students
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SOUTH BEND, Ind. --- Officers responded to Clay High School Tuesday afternoon after a fight broke out involving about a hundred students. The fight which was allegedly prompted by a racial slur led to a total of three students being arrested by officers on scene.

“At first we had a gas leak and then we came back in and then this Caucasian man called a black woman the n-word and then her brother came and got to fighting," said Anthony Velez, a freshman at Clay.

According to witnesses, the fight stemmed from an alleged racial slur on a female student which led to her brother jumping in to defend her.

The mother of the siblings Fatima Williams says the bullying behavior has been happening for several weeks and today’s incident was a breaking point.

“I don’t care verbal words can always be exchanged, but when you get physical that’s when the problems start," said Williams.

Officers from three different agencies were called to the campus in response to the incident. While students say they were grateful for the quick response, they feel the incident could have been prevented had there been more security on campus to begin with.

“People got tased that never should’ve got tased at all. They could’ve handled it better. Yeah. More secure. They should’ve been had more security there’s only like 2 security guards," said a group of students.

For Williams, she says increasing security isn’t the only thing she’d like to see as a result of today’s incident, but right now she doesn’t think she’s ready to bring her kids back to school.

“I don’t think I’ma bring my kids back. I might have to work another part time job to pay for some Slyvan online or something like that, but I don’t think I want my kids to come back here," said Williams.

School officials are still investigating the incident at this time, but Superintendent Todd Cummings shared in a statement earlier today the district will have support services for students beginning Wednesday.

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