EUGENE, Ore - Those involved in a racially-charged fight at North Eugene High School are speaking out about the altercation, which involved adults and students, as police continued to sort out exactly what happened.
According to police and school officials, the brawl started when 15-year-old Michael Roberts got into a fight during lunch period with a black student.
When family members, including his mother, 40-year-old Meta Reeder, came to pick him up, things got ugly.
According to police, the family approached a group of mostly black teens shouting racial slurs. Then, things got physical in front of dozens of other students.
"I heard parents yelling 'F you!' and then they used the 'N' word," said student Cas Spellman.
"Somebody was actually strangling somebody," said student Marissa Hastings. "They had them in a headlock at one point."
Tylor Dumilieu, 16, who is white, said the adults attacked he and other black students unexpectedly.
"They got all up in our face and then we just started fighting after that," he said.
He suffered wounds on his neck he says he got from an adult.
Reeder, 40, showed a busted wrist she said she got from a teenager.
But Reeder said she and her family did nothing wrong. She said the students started the war of words by calling them white trash.
"Everyone was just piling on my dad, just trying to hit him," Roberts said.
When asked if it's OK for an adult to physically attack a 15 or 16 year old, Reeder said, "Absolutely not -- unless they are defending themselves.
"That one boy, the African American boy, was just jumping around with his fists up like this right in his face and just nailed him," she said. "How are you supposed to let something go when they are beating on you and they are throwing you into the bike rack?"
When Dumilieu alerted his mother, Michelle Dumilieu, to the situation, she arrived at the school visibly upset and had her own altercation with police. Police said she refused to leave the scene when officers asked her to leave.
"They wouldn't even let me listen to my son," she said. "And at that time two officers came in and tried to arrest me."
Now, what started as a lunchroom altercation has Roberts and his dad facing racial intimidation charges, his dad, mom and cousin facing assault charges, and Michelle Dumilieu cited for physical harassment and resisting arrest.
Different sides to the story
Meta Reeder said her son, 15-year old Michael Roberts, has been bullied at school for months. Thursday, she says she got a phone call from the principal yet again about a fight.
"Are you just supposed to walk away or defend yourself?" asked Roberts. "I don't know. I think you're supposed to defend yourself."
There's still debate over who threw the first punch.
KVAL News has not yet named or spoken on camera with any of the black students involved in the incident, none of whom were cited or identified by name by police or school officials.
Michelle Dumilieu says the way she was treated by police was almost worse than finding out her son had been in a fight.
She says police left her in the dark about the situation and then arrested her for not leaving the scene.
We posed the question about what exactly warranted her arrest to Eugene Police Interim Chief Pete Kerns. "I don't have the exact behavior," he says. "But she interfered with the investigation the officers were conducting. It's a very unfortunate thing that the mother could not control her temper and police had to arrest her."
Chief Kerns says he could not elaborate because it's still early in the investigation.
School officials tell KVAL they're working with investigators and are not sure if students will be suspended.
City leaders condemn actions of adults
Eugene School District Superintendent George Russell called the adults' actions unacceptable at a Friday press conference, according to The Register-Guard newspaper.
"At no time is it ever appropriate for an adult to come on a campus, whether it's a high school campus, or any other of our campuses, and assault kids, or go after kids, or call them racial names and epithets at no time is it ever acceptable," he said.
Russell was joined by Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy, interim Police Chief Pete Kerns and Annette Leonard and Linda Hamilton of the city's human rights commission at the event.
Henry Luvert, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, also attended the press conference and said Eugene residents must learn how to interact with other cultures on a day-to-day basis in order to avoid other similar incidents.
Roberts did not immediately return phone calls for comment.
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DONT BLAME THE BLACK STUDENTS ...WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND IS GOING TO ALLOW SOMEONE TO CALL THEM A NIGGER IN THEIR FACE...FUCK THAT...STOP MAKING BLACK PEOPLE THE ESCAPE GOAT ...PUSSY!!!!
LewBoogieFRESH 1 year ago 23
I hate when people bring their bullshit into schools, that's not what education is all about. If they don't want to learn then GTFO and don't ruin other people's lives..
Cavin21 1 year ago 7