Staff member, student injured during altercation at Chaparral High School

EL PASO, Texas ( KTSM ) — A verbal altercation involving several students at Chaparral High School left a staff member and a student injured last Friday, Sept. 6, the Gadsden Independent School District said in a statement on Monday, Sept. 9.

The school district said just after 1 p.m. that Friday, several students at Chaparral High School were involved in a verbal altercation, and during the intervention, a staff member sustained a minor injury.

Additionally, one student was injured due to the large crowd that gathered around the altercation.

The Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office (DASO) responded to a 911 call made by a staff member due to the incident. However, no citations were issued, and after the situation was under control, DASO assisted with a controlled dismissal of students, according to the school district.

The staff member was transferred by EMS for “precautionary evaluation, and was then cleared by medical professionals and returned to work on Monday,” the school district said.

The school district said while the situation was “intense, no physical assault took place; the conflict was limited to posturing and verbal comments.”

Parents of the students involved in the altercation agreed to a “non-punitive cooling-off period, and they took their children home for the remainder of the day,” the school district said.

Parents were also sent a message on Friday regarding the incident that is the following:

“Due to student altercations, Chaparral High School will remain on a hold until the end of the instructional day. This is purely a preventative measure, and there are no immediate security risks at this time. Parents are encouraged not to come to the school. All students are safe, but we want to ensure that we complete the academic day without any further altercations between students.”

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