The Sacramento Bee, February 1, 1995
REVIEW SET OF MELEE AT ENCINA
CRAIG HEARS COMPLAINTS, WILL TALK TO SCHOOL STAFF
By Kimberly Moy, Bee Staff Writer
   Sacramento County Sheriff Glen Craig pledged Tuesday night to meet with
school officials to critique the handling of Friday's melee at Encina High
School to ensure that "such an incident does not reoccur."
   Craig stood his ground, however, as nearly 300 Encina High parents and
students assailed the handling of the campus lunchtime disturbance. He
continued to defend his deputies' response to the "mob mentality" of
students in the cafeteria.
   Impassioned parents and students at the meeting in La Sierra Community
Center called for an independent investigation of whether deputies used
excessive force when they used pepper spray and batons on students to quell
the incident.
   Craig did not respond to calls for such an investigation, but San Juan
Unified School District Superintendent Ray Tolleson later said that it would
be unnecessary if parents were involved in the joint school and Sheriff's
Department review.
   Six students were arrested on charges ranging from battery on a police
officer to inciting a riot. Nine students were injured in the incident that
stemmed from a fight Friday between a male and female student in the
cafeteria. Fewer than 100 students were involved in the incident, Craig
said, and only eight to 10 were directly entangled with deputies.
   At the Tuesday night meeting, parents and students stood in a line of up
to 18 people to speak. A number of parents criticized deputies for not using
a bullhorn to warn students to move out of the cafeteria before using the
pepper spray.
   Craig answered that deputies did not have a bullhorn when they
responded to the incident. "They did not expect it to erupt like this," he
said.
   A parent shouted: "It's your fault."
   Craig called it "presumptuous" to assume that deputies should have had a
bullhorn.
   Several of those in the audience complained that many students were not
involved with the fight, but were pepper sprayed by deputies.
"My daughter was sprayed with pepper spray, and she has asthma," said a
distraught mother. "That's my child."
   Craig answered that pepper spray must be sprayed in a person's face to
take effect, and that "if students were in the area where officers
sprayed, they had not followed orders to disperse."
   Parents and students also complained that deputies did not treat the
teenagers with respect, even taunting them with sexual and racial
comments.   "They treated us as dogs and animals," said Ernestine Holmes,
Encina student body president. "They came to our school with an arrogant
attitude. You don't want to listen. . . . You are supposed to keep the
peace. All you did was create a ruckus. Officers should give it to us
first," Holmes shot back, to which parents and students applauded.
   One woman, however, came to the meeting to praise the Sheriff's
Department's work. "Children are there to learn. Our children are taught to
respect authority," she said. "You have many people who support you."
   In addition to the questions and complaints aired Tuesday night,
parents presented a list of 23 questions to Craig and Tolleson.
   James Shelby, president of the Sacramento Urban League, suggested an
independent review of deputies' handling of the disturbance to begin a
healing process. "There needs to be assurance there's fairness, that there's
no bias on part of the Sheriff's Department or the community," he said.
Shelby later said that he and other community leaders would review videotape
of the incident and decide whether they will call for such an investigation.