Portland High School was temporarily locked down last week after a brawl between students that some say included a knife, though school officials have denied the presence of a weapon.
Video of the altercation surfaced Monday in a social media post from a Portland parent.
In the video, the unidentified student appears to have something in his hand, though it’s difficult to determine what it is.
Josh Haefele, the Twitter user who posted the video, said the object was a knife, but Portland school officials have denied that it was a knife.
Haefele also claimed that Portland school officials did not initially inform parents about the brawl; however, school board chair Sarah Lentz said the delay was due to a problem with their communications technology.
In the email to parents that was eventually sent out, Portland High School Principal Shiela Jepson provided parents with more information about the brawl.
“There were rumors that a weapon was involved. There was no weapon used on any student during this conflict,” Jepson said.
“We do not believe fighting solves any conflict,” she said.
The students who were “aggressively involved” in the brawl have been suspended, she said.
Jepson also denied that there was a “lockdown.”
Instead, she described what happened as a 20-minute delay in dismissing classes for lunchtime.
“An administrator was on the scene as the altercation was happening,” she said. “The cause of the conflict started earlier in the week when allegedly a student in a vehicle drove by and shouted foul language at another student. The students don’t know each other and when they saw each other in school the posturing continued about what each was “going to do about it”. For some, physically fighting seemed like the only response.”
Haefele accused Jepson of lying about the presence of a knife.
