A teenager has been arrested in connection with a gang-related assault after Friday's East Mecklenburg High football game, CMPD said today.Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will send extra security staff to sporting events to make sure banned students, including those who display gang behavior, aren't allowed in.
Last Friday night, two students, one from East Mecklenburg High School and one from Garinger High School, were beaten with a metal crutch. A group of spectators followed them to a church parking lot near the stadium just after Friday's East Meck-Myers Park game, police said. Both were taken to the hospital.
Deputy police chief Dave Stephens would not release details of the arrest, such as whether the teenager is a CMS student, saying police are seeking another suspect. "We have reason to believe there was gang involvement in this assault," he said. CMS chief operating officer Mo Green said the district will act immediately to make sure students with serious behavior problems, including all who have been sent to Derita alternative school, are barred from football games.
Placing students on "social restriction" isn't new, he said, but the district hasn't enforced it well. School-based security staff who recognize troublemakers will be stationed at games, Green said. CMS officials said they aren't sure how many students are currently banned.
"We don't have a real good handle on that yet," said Ralph Taylor, the CMS administrator in charge of security. Source: The Charlotte Observer