The footage appears to show a violent fight between students in an eighth grade classroom, leaving one student unconscious. Darsha Philips reports for the NBC4 News at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 14, 2025.
Some Inland Empire middle school parents said they are outraged after video footage shows a violent fight between students in an eighth grade classroom, leaving one student unconscious.
The fight occurred on March 10 at Jehue Middle School in Colton.
Racial slurs can be heard in the back of the video, and the girl, who was left unconscious, was a Black student.
“She and I were getting wet with water. She told him to stop. He got mad and got her water bottle, and they started fighting,” said Rosemary Hidalgo, Jehue Middle School student.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
Following the water splashes, video footage appears to show the girl throwing a laptop at the boy, who then proceeds to throw the girl down on a desk and knocks her unconscious.
The girl was seen throwing a metal object several times at the boy prior to the video, according to witnesses.
During a news conference on Friday, some parents expressed worries for their children's safety at the school since the incident occurred in a classroom with a teacher present.
“We send our children to school thinking somehow they are safe and with supervision of adults. And this kind of thing still happens, and it's sad to see that our students feel it was a joke. That it was funny in some way, I don’t see nothing funny,” said Elena Tapia, Jehue Middle School parent.
The incident is being investigated by Colton police, and immediate action was taken by the teacher in the classroom, according to the Rialto School Unified District.
“A telephone call was made to safety officers so when we say there was decisive action taken there was action taken everything in between is under investigation,” said Syeda Jafri, the communications agent for the district.
The Rialto Unified School District said in a statement that it acted promptly and contacted the parents of the students involved while providing medical aid.
“This disturbing and unfortunate incident is under investigation by the district and local authorities,” the statement said. The district does not condone the violent actions of the students and does not tolerate hate speech on any of its campuses.”
