ROBERTA, Ga. —
A fight that broke in Crawford County High School has several parents worried. Roberta Police Chief Ty Matthews says some information spread on social media about the fight was false.
“Social media can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing,” Matthews said.
Blaire Meldrum, whose parents work at the high school, says she was worried when she heard on Facebook about the fight.
“I did hear that teachers were hurt, so my first reaction was, ‘Oh, my gosh! Let me check on them,’” Meldrum said. “My parents hadn’t heard or seen of any teachers being hurt.”
Matthews confirmed that the reports of teachers being injured are false.
Some also claimed on social media that this was gang-related.
“We have nothing showing it as gang-related,” Matthews said.
Matthews says reports of this led to several students getting checked out of school.
“There’s a lot of students in a school that will take advantage of the situation,” Matthews said.
He says social media can be good to get the word out. However, it wasn’t in this case.
“If misinformation is put out there, commenting on what you don’t know about without any facts, it’s a problem,” Matthews said.
“They’re just spreading fear in the community. They’re misleading a lot of the parents, making some parents scared to send their kids to school,” Meldrum said.
So what really happened?
“You had a brother and a sister on one side. You had another person involved that had 7 other family members,” Matthews said.
This resulted to the arrest of those nine students, ranging from age 14 and up.
“As far as the law is concerned, we’re concerned. They will be charged with disruption of a public school in the state of Georgia,” Matthews said.
However, there could be more charges.
“We’re still in the investigation phase of this. As we determine everybody’s role in the fight, that will determine further charges pending,” Matthews said.
Matthews says all students involved were suspended for 10 days pending a tribunal. The Crawford County superintendent said he would not comment on the situation.
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