By Blake Deshazo

The Selma Times-Journal

Dozens of parents checked their children out of class Friday afternoon after a fight broke out at Selma High School and rumors ran rampant on social media.

Dr. Angela Mangum, superintendent for Selma City Schools, said the school was placed on lockdown after a fight broke out between several students.

“A small group of children made the unfortunate decision to engage in a fight,” Mangum said. “The security officers that are assigned to the school, along with school staff, responded immediately and tried to disperse the fight.”

A security guard used mace to break the fight up.

“An officer felt that it was necessary to use mace. The students that were involved of course were affected by the mace,” Mangum said. “There were some students that ran to the fight. If they ran to the fight, they of course inhaled some of the mace as well.”

It is unclear what started the fight, but Mangum said two students were transported for medical treatment by emergency services and four others were transported by their parents.

The school stayed on lockdown until everything was settled down, but many parents still checked their children out of class due to unspecified rumors.

“A lot of [parents] checked out their children based on misinformation,” Mangum said. “I don’t believe that if they knew or understood that the children were safe, that there was no present danger or anything that they were exposed to, that they would have checked out their children.”

Mangum would not comment on the specifics of what was passed around on social media between students.

“Unfortunately there were some texts that were sent out, things posted on YouTube and Facebook that were not accurate,” Mangum said. “The incident involved a group of children fighting, and that is all.”

The fight is still under investigation, but Mangum said disciplinary actions would be taken against the students for fighting according to the Selma City Schools Code of Conduct.

“The realities of high schools today and schools in general is that there are students that have conflict. They make poor decisions, they decide to fight,” Mangum said. “We try to be very proactive and teach our children how to regulate their behavior, how to resolve conflict, but nevertheless, some of them still choose to make very poor decisions.”

Selma Police Chief John Brock said no arrests were made.

Mangum said the biggest loss was the disruption in the students’ education.

“The educational process was disrupted today, and that never is a good situation,” Mangum said. “It was frustrating to me that individuals chose to spread inaccurate information about what actually happened. It affected children’s education, and that was very disappointing for me.”