Residents near Woodrow Wilson High School are voicing concerns about disruptive student behavior, including public fights and inappropriate activities on private property.
Heather, a local resident who requested her last name be withheld to avoid potential backlash from students, shared her frustrations with the Long Beach Post. She described an increase in disturbances in the neighborhood surrounding the Long Beach, California school.
According to Heather, both she and other neighbors have often felt ignored by the school when raising these issues.
She recounted instances of students openly using marijuana, urinating in her yard, and trespassing on private property.
Heather moved to Long Beach in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when schools were closed.
Since Wilson High School resumed in-person classes, she describes the environment as chaotic. Over the years, Heather has documented numerous student altercations on video.
On Tuesday, the worst fight yet spilled out onto the streets near the school, according to Heather and security footage shared with the Long Beach Post.
‘I see a huge swarm of students coming off the campus,’ she said. ‘I knew right away a fight was going to happen.’
Neighbors to Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, have said students routinely bring chaos to the surrounding streets. Fights are common and some students have even been bold enough to have sex in people’s driveways
She called the police but not before the horde of youngsters climbed on cars and trampled her garden, she said.
The security footage reportedly showed dozens of students running out onto Prospect Street. Many students were seen standing by and recording the fight with their phones.
The fights cooled off but then started back up again on school grounds, which was when officials finally intervened.
About 15 minutes later, school safety officers and officers with the Long Beach Police Department arrived. But the students had already dispersed by then.
‘Upon arrival, officers were unable to locate a fight,’ the Long Beach Police Department said in a statement.
A school spokesperson told the Long Beach Post that a fight broke out in the same area after school about a month ago.
Because of that, Heather said she was surprised the school wasn’t ready nor equipped to deal with it again.
When she calls the school, Heather says she gets ‘stonewalled’.
Heather and two neighbors who declined to be identified by their names told the Long Beach Post they want more supervision of the students by school safety officers and the city police when they leave campus
‘Am I going to really call the police every time something happens?’
Heather and her neighbors have called school board members, the superintendent and City Council members, largely to no avail.
She said she got a call back from the superintendent’s office on Thursday where it was communicated that they wanted to find a solution.
The school district has said that in both fights this academic year ‘school staff notified the parents of the involved students, worked to de-escalate the situation, separated the students, and restored order’.
Staff also have tried to mediate disagreements between the students who came to blows.
‘While school staff’s ability to intervene decreases when altercations occur off campus, staff proactively monitor the areas immediately adjacent to the school site,’ the district spokesperson said.
Heather and two neighbors who declined to be identified by their names told the Long Beach Post they want more supervision of the students by school safety officers and the city police when they leave campus.
One neighbor said she was seriously considering moving over the constant fights.
