Three Hawthorne High students arrested after officer, staff member assaulted in melee

Police and Hawthorne High School officials plan to increase security after three students were arrested when several massive brawls erupted on campus Tuesday, resulting in injuries to an officer and a school official.

Videos showing large crowds of students swarming around several groups fighting quickly circulated on social media Tuesday afternoon. One video shows two female students attacking each other. Another video shows a male student picking up a trash can and throwing it toward a group of students.

A video posted by Samuel Cruz (@stfuafl) on Nov 10, 2015 at 2:53pm PST

In the third and most alarming video, a wave of dozens of students appear to be swarming a group of students fighting.

The chaos erupted on campus around lunchtime when multiple groups of students were involved in a dispute, setting off small pockets of students fighting, said Hawthorne police Lt. Aimee Yoshida. Many students were involved in the fights and not all of them have been identified, she said.

Overwhelmed by the groups of students fighting, school officials called Hawthorne police to help restore order on campus.

As police and school officials tried to safely stop the fights, an officer and a staff member were assaulted, but they did not require medical assistance, Yoshida said. A student suffered minor injuries during the fights and was treated by Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics.

Three students were arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer and school employee, she said.

“We believe our officers showed great restraint and worked hard to quickly restore order,” authorities said in a statement. “The majority of the students remained peaceful and did not get involved to make things worse.”

Police and school officials were working to review the campus’ current security measures and find new ways to prevent such fights from happening again.

Samuel Wayne Lyman-Cruz, who posted a video of the fights on Instagram, said the fights were racially motivated.

Police were still looking into what sparked the fights.

“We are still trying to sort it out,” Yoshida said. “It wasn’t all about race.”

Because school was closed Wednesday for Veteran’s Day, police planned to return to campus Thursday to interview additional students. More arrests could come as investigators continue to scour through videos on social media and additional students are identified, she said.

Hawthorne High School is one of seven schools in the Centinela Valley Union High School District. More than 2,000 students attend the campus at 4859 West El Segundo Blvd.

A full-time Hawthorne police officer is assigned to work at the campus and “get a pulse” of what is happening among students, Yoshida said. Fights of this magnitude are rare, she said.

“It’s been a quite of number of years since we have had an incident like this,” she said.

School officials plan to host meetings at 6 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday for parents with concerns and questions about the fights.

For breaking news in California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA