Cajon High School holds town hall days after fights broke out on campus

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KABC) -- Parents attended a town hall meeting at Cajon High School in San Bernardino, several days after a series of fights broke out on campus last Thursday.

The meeting was held by the school principal, who was there to not only take input from the community, but update them on what happened.

"You had two young ladies who had a conflict," said San Bernardino City Unified School District Chief of Police Joseph Paulino. "And then their friends got involved in the fight as well."

Paulino said those fights led to several other unrelated fights. He said at least eight fights were investigated by school staff.

Paulino said one student may have been injured from pepper spray deployed by campus security during the fights, but no one was seriously hurt. Over the weekend, however, rumors started spreading about a threat of a school shooting on Monday.

"I believe it was more of a misunderstanding in terms of the message," said Paulino. "You have youths on social media, and a lot of times they may type something fast and it becomes a misunderstanding. So we came to the (conclusion) that there was nothing there to pursue."

Police said there have been no significant problems over the past two days. Many parents indicated that they intend to show up to the meeting.

"This is a good school, there are good teachers, and they do their best. There are fights at many other schools," said Diane Hanson, who has one student who attends Cajon High School. "I don't really know what to do expect put police on campus all over the place, they might have to do that."

Robert Altamirano graduated from Cajon High last year. "I know there were a lot of fights here, and that's concerning to a lot of people," said Altamirano. "But I trust the staff, and I trust they'll do what they can to make people feel comfortable and make this a safe environment."