Shouts and commotion drew a neighbor from her house near Wilson High School during lunch on Tuesday.
“I see a huge swarm of students coming off the campus,” she said. “I knew right away a fight was going to happen.”
She dialed 911, threw on her shoes and dashed outside, where students climbed on cars and trampled her garden, she said. Then, the energy intensified. In security camera footage shared with the Long Beach Post, dozens of students ran into the middle of Prospect Street, which abuts the Wilson campus. They raised their phones to record as fights broke out among students.
Heather, who requested her last name be withheld for fear of retaliation from students, described the scene as “a complete loss of control, a complete breakdown.”
The fights cooled off, only to restart again, spilling onto the Wilson campus, until school staff intervened, according to the video and Heather. Ten to fifteen minutes later, school safety officers arrived, Heather said, followed by Long Beach police officers. By then, the students had dispersed. “Upon arrival, officers were unable to locate a fight,” the Long Beach Police Department said.
Heather and her neighbors said student disruptions on the blocks near the school are increasing. Heather moved to Long Beach in 2020 during “peak COVID” when schools were closed. Since the school reopened, “it’s chaos,” she said. She described students urinating in her yard, smoking cannabis, trespassing and having sex in driveways. Over several years, she has captured numerous videos of student fights.
One month before Tuesday’s skirmish, fighting broke out among Wilson students in the same place after school, according to a spokesperson for Long Beach Unified School District.
Given that incident’s recency, Heather said she was surprised the school wasn’t more prepared to handle Tuesday’s brawl. She said that she and her neighbors have tried repeatedly to engage the school, which directs them to call local law enforcement when the events occur off campus. “We get stonewalled,” she said. “Am I going to really call the police every time something happens?”
Heather and her neighbors have tried calling school board members, the superintendent and City Council members. Heather received a call back from the superintendent’s office on Thursday, signalling a desire to find solutions.
A spokesperson for the district said that in both cases of fighting at Wilson this semester, “school staff notified the parents of the involved students, worked to de-escalate the situation, separated the students, and restored order.” School staff also facilitated mediation between the students involved in the altercations, the spokesperson said.
But when the altercations take place off campus, the district has less control, the spokesperson acknowledged: “While school staff’s ability to intervene decreases when altercations occur off campus, staff proactively monitor the areas immediately adjacent to the school site.”
But Heather and two neighbors, who requested their names not be shared because they fear retaliation from students, said they want more monitoring and patrolling both from LBUSD school safety officers and city police.
“You’d think that there would be a presence over at the high school after the melee,” one longtime resident said on Wednesday. “Nothing. Crickets.”
She said students are disrupting her life. During particularly busy periods of the school day, like dismissal, she said she doesn’t leave her house. “I’m seriously thinking about moving,” she said. “It changes how we feel about our neighborhood.”
Above all, Heather and two neighbors said they want to see more intervention because they worry the violence will escalate.