Several staff members were hurt and several students arrested following a large, caught on camera brawl at Cheltenham High School Wednesday morning.
The incident at the school on Rices Mill Road in Wyncote, Pennsylvania occurred around 7:30 a.m. while classes and Advanced Placement testing were taking place. Video of the fight showed students punching each other, pulling hair and ripping clothes. At one point in the video a teacher appears to be knocked out while trying to break up the brawl.
"I was walking upstairs and I just saw a fight," Matthew Velasquez, a junior at Cheltenham High, said. "Then, I turned my head and there was a teacher on the ground."
Police said one teacher suffered a concussion. A spokesperson for the school district also said several staff members were injured while trying to break up the fight.
Police took four students into custody after the fight though they didn't reveal their ages or what charges they could face. Jarrett Ross, another student at Cheltenham High School, told NBC10 he knew one of the girls involved in the fight and described her as normally calm.
"Something had happened to piss her off that bad," Ross said.
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The school district said in a statement that administrators and four additional safety personnel will be at the school for the remainder of the week and all of next week.
"Their efforts will be focused on school culture and climate," Dr. Wagner Marseille, the Superintendent of schools for the Cheltenham School District, wrote. "They will ensure that school rules are being followed, instructional time is respected, and discipline is being delivered to those who break the code of conduct."
Counselors and representatives from the school's Student Services Department will also be present for additional student support, according to Dr. Wagner.
