Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for March 20, 2009 DALLAS CAGE FIGHTS

In another episode of "What were they thinking?"...

Fighting in cage 'was the norm' at South Oak Cliff High School

By TAWNELL D. HOBBS and KENT FISCHER
The Dallas Morning News

Angela Williamson said she can't forget the image of her son's swollen hand after he participated in a cage fight at South Oak Cliff High School. She said her son told her that students stood around clapping and screaming while watching the fight, as if they were in an arena.

Williamson took her son out of South Oak Cliff shortly after that day in 2004 and moved to Cedar Hill.

"I said enough is enough, and we just left," she said. "This was the norm. My son said this is what they do – let them fight in 'the cage.' "

Cage fights at the school between 2003 and 2005 have just come to light, months after the district completed an investigation. Documents obtained by The Dallas Morning News show that troubled students were sent to duke it out – with bare fists and no head protection – in a steel utility cage in an athletic locker room.

Donald Moten, who was principal at South Oak Cliff High at the time, and other employees who orchestrated the fights, or allowed them to go on, did not face any criminal charges because of the statute of limitations, district officials said. And several still were working at South Oak Cliff High or other DISD campuses at the beginning of this school year.

Moten, who has since resigned from the district, has denied any knowledge of cage fighting at the school.

DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said employees who were involved in the cage fights were disciplined. But none have faced criminal charges, and they probably never will.

DISD's Office of Professional Responsibility received information on the cage fighting in February 2008 while investigating allegations that faculty at the school were changing athletes' grades. Investigators found that security monitors routinely used "the cage" – a section of the boys basketball locker room barricaded by wire mesh and metal lockers – to force problem students to fight out their disputes.

Frank McCammon, an OPR inspector who wrote the report, said his office completed its investigation and submitted the report to district officials in March 2008. His office also immediately sent it to the Dallas County district attorney's office, he said. DISD's police department also sent its findings to the DA's office, he said.

McCammon said the district attorney's office declined to prosecute because the statute of limitations had run out by the time the cage fights were discovered in 2008. Jamille Bradfield, a spokeswoman for the district attorney, said she could neither confirm nor deny that the office received information about the case.

Trustee Lew Blackburn said he was relieved that DISD notified the district attorney about the incident. However, he said, he's "still not happy knowing that this went uninvestigated for so long."

'Let you settle it'

Williamson said she hopes her willingness to tell the story about her son's fight will prevent the same thing from happening to someone else's child.

Cortland Williamson, her son, who is now a 21-year-old college student in East Texas, ended up in the cage after he was hit in the face by a boy he didn't get along with, Angela Williamson said.

She said a football coach told the students, "I'm going to let you settle it – quash it" by fighting in the cage.

"It was the norm," Williamson said. "I think ... they fought five or 10 minutes – that's a long time to be hitting each other."

Williamson said she met with the coach and Moten – neither of whom still work at the school – about the incident. She said the coach admitted to allowing the fight. "He told me this is how they settled disputes in his day," she said.

Moten told the coach he shouldn't be allowing the fights, Williamson said, and the coach began pacing the room in a rage. She said the parent conference ended, but not before Moten tried to get her to forgive the coach.

Williamson said she wrote a letter to district administrators about the incident and made phone calls but was ignored.

Vague mention

At least one trustee had criticized district administrators Wednesday for not briefing the school board on the cage fighting. But district officials said Thursday that the information was included in a board package given to trustees.

Trustee Jerome Garza went through his records Thursday and found information on the issue. But it contained only a vague, one-paragraph mention of the cage fights under the heading "child abuse." The brief mention, tucked in a 31-page OPR annual report, didn't even name South Oak Cliff as the school, he said.

Board President Jack Lowe said he doesn't remember receiving the report. "But that doesn't mean that it didn't happen," he said.

The News was unable to reach South Oak Cliff principal Regina Jones on Thursday. She came to the school in 2006 and was recently named DISD's Principal of the Year for improvements she's made at the campus.

"I'm very satisfied with SOC today, and the direction they're heading," said Blackburn, the trustee who represents the South Oak Cliff High School area. "The students and teachers there tell me things are a lot better."

Staff writer Jennifer Emily contributed to this report.