EFL from WND
A high school assembly on anger-management erupted in violent chaos while students were acting out peaceful ways to resolve conflict. The melee at Baltimoreâs Woodlawn High School began when the mother of a student confronted a group of girls who had been bothering her child, the Baltimore Sun reported. Woodlawn Principal C. Anthony Thompson said screaming escalated into pushing and hitting, prompting school officials to call for police as many of the 750 students rushed toward the fighting to get a better look. Nothing like a peaceful catfight to gain the attention of a bored group of 750 teenagers.
Soon other fights broke out all over, the Sun said. Ninth-grader Melissa Parks told the paper the facilitator presenting the assembly, organized by Sheppard Pratt Health System, peacefully yelled for people to stop. The fight took 15 minutes to diffuse, said Thompson. By a very peaceful custodian armed with a firehose.
"Unfortunately, that original incident at the assembly became the catalyst for other fights," said Douglas J. Neilson, a spokesman for Baltimore County schools, according to the Sun. "It was handled quickly and effectively by the school administration." Doug, do you really think weâre going to buy that line of bull?
The anger-management program is required in all Baltimore County schools.
-snip- non-description of unnamed participants.
The Sun said the 1,900-student school recently has been trying to revamp its image. Last year, 10 people were charged with assault and disorderly conduct during an evening fashion show at the high school. Hey,you can go to two NHL games and not see that type of violence. Have they got any otehr school functions scheduled? I doubt I can afford the scalped price of a PTA ticket, but Iâm betting even a meeting of the chess club might end in blood at Woodlawn.
"Something like this just puts us back to the starting point," Thompson said of the fighting at the assembly, according to the Sun. The schoolâs student body in 2002 included 60 gang members and 200 students from group homes, many with discipline problems, the paper said. "The whole reason we hold conflict management in schools is because young people have this angst built up in them, and itâs easy for them to go off inappropriately," the school districtâs Neilson said. I wonder if this school has organized the teachers into a quick response team like they do at super-max prisons. 
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