Three people arrested, five students suspended after fight between Communications South and Business Administration.
Kavahn Mansouri
-Editor-in-Chief-
Story Update: April 18th 10:00 p.m.: STLCC Director of Communications DeLancey Smith has confirmed that the five students are suspended for one year, rather than expelled.
Story Update – April 12th 4:05 p.m.: St. Louis Community College has expelled the five students involved in the incident on the Meramec campus that took place Monday, April 9, according to a press release issued by STLCC Director of Communications DeLancey Smith.
Original Story:
On Monday, April 9, three people were arrested and released on STLCC-Meramec’s campus after five individuals –four females and one male– were involved in a disturbance during passing period.
Campus police responded at 1:50 p.m. to the disturbance which took place between the Business Administration and Communications South buildings.
According to Campus Police Chief Paul Banta, five police officers responded to the fight in progress.
Assistant Professor Sandy Brady said she contacted campus police after she encountered the conflict at the scene.
“There were a number of us who were hearing it and seeing it and rushed out to try to handle the situation,” Brady said. “I spent most of the time trying to get the gathering crowd away from the area.”
Brady said there was a combined response to the incident from faculty and police. She said she was concerned about the crowd that gathered around the disturbance to take video and pictures.
“People were being violent, screaming and punching,” Brady said. “It’s a tremendous problem to have that on campus.”
Banta said campus police will increase visibility to prevent fights in the future.
“You can’t be everywhere at one time, but we will certainly increase the patrol in the areas that students congregate,” Banta said. “
Kirkwood County Municipal Court will pursue charges. Banta said the individuals may face disciplinary action according to the student disciplinary code.
Brady said that she was shocked to see a majority of the bystanders do nothing to diffuse the situation.
“It was dangerous. I thought it could have escalated to something really tragic,” Brady said. “You never know what people will bring onto campus with them; I think we were very lucky that it didn’t escalate to something very tragic.”
Check our April 19 issue for more updates. Footage of the disturbance was initially posted on YouTube and later removed from this link.
Another version of bystander footage is available here: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/82449483/
*This video is not produced by The Montage Student Newspaper.
