PALESTINE —
No indictments are expected in this spring’s brawl involving students from Westwood and Elkhart high schools following last week’s presentation of the case to an Anderson County grand jury.
Stanley Sokolowski, assistant district attorney for Anderson County, said the grand jury heard evidence last Thursday relating to the April 2 fight which sent multiple students to a local hospital.
“They did present the Elkhart-Westwood fight (to the grand jury),” Sokolowski said. “Only one person (an 18-year-old Anderson County man) was presented with a felony charge. No charges were filed...I think probably what it came down to (in the minds of the grand jurors) was mutual combat.”
Shortly after 8 p.m. on April 2, authorities have said a fight broke out between students from both schools at the Elkhart tennis courts, adjacent to Elk Stadium where the annual Wesley Taylor Relays were taking place.
Four Elkhart students were treated and released at Palestine Regional Medical Center for injuries sustained in the fight, including one with a broken orbital bone and another with a broken nose and possible concussion.
Authorities have said no weapons -- only hands and feet -- were used in the fight.
“At one point, it appears there were between six-to-10 persons fighting,” Anderson County Sheriff Greg Taylor told the Herald-Press at the time of the brawl.
The fight was halted when an Elkhart school official was alerted to the area by a student.
The conflict reportedly started over a negative comment made by one of the students regarding the other school district on the popular social media site Facebook, according to a person familiar with the incident.
What started as a verbal altercation between a student from each school district at the track meet shifted to the nearby tennis courts and turned physical as it gained more participants, officials have also said.
Leaders from both school districts condemned the actions of the involved students, saying they were “not representative” of either districts’ expectations.
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Paul Stone may be contacted via e-mail at pstone@palestineherald.com
Local News
No one indicted in fight at school
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