Gang Member Arrested in Dorsey High Shooting : Violence: Campus is calm amid tight security. Top district officials : visit the school to lend reassurance.

A Southwest Los Angeles gang member with a lengthy criminal record was arrested Wednesday for allegedly shooting a 15-year-old student at Dorsey High School who was registering for the first day of classes, police said.

Bryant Boyd, 18, was taken into custody without incident at his apartment in the Lower Baldwin Hills Village after an investigation coordinated by Los Angeles police homicide detectives and Los Angeles Unified School District police, investigators said. Boyd was booked on suspicion of attempted murder and held without bail.

The shooting occurred about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday as 2,000 students were registering at the student service center at the Dorsey campus in Southwest Los Angeles. A scuffle erupted and someone shouted “move out of my way” as the sound of a shot rang out, school officials said.

Moments later, teachers found Glynn Brown, 15, a bystander, lying in the hallway with a wound in the chest, police said. He was rushed to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition Wednesday after undergoing surgery.

“It started as a dispute and escalated into a shooting incident,” said Lt. Victor Guzman of the LAPD’s South Bureau Homicide division. “(Brown) was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The nature of the dispute was not disclosed.

School officials said Brown had just filled out paperwork indicating that he lived in the Manual Arts High School area but was seeking a transfer to Dorsey.

Guzman said that Boyd, who was linked to the crime by eyewitnesses, was also seeking to register at Dorsey from another school. Boyd has a long history of gang involvement and at the time of his arrest was wanted on a narcotics warrant, police said. Investigators did not reveal the details of his purported criminal record.

Meanwhile, Dorsey experienced what school officials described as a normal day of classes on Wednesday. Security was tight, and school district psychologists were dispatched to the campus to ease the emotional stress of the shooting.

“It was a good day and the extra security gave me a sense of comfort,” said one parent, who refused to give her name. “We are going to have to get beyond this.”

At the start of school Wednesday morning, concerned parents escorting teen-agers to school exchanged greetings with school board member Barbara Boudreaux, Supt. Sid Thompson and other school officials who were on hand to lessen apprehensions.

But Boudreaux, whose two sons graduated from Dorsey 20 years ago, called the shooting incident devastating.

“The only way to make the school safe is to make the community safe,” she said.

Such talk did not concern 15-year-old Amir Johnson, who was attending Dorsey for the first time.

“At first I was a little scared, but now I’m not worried,” he said confidently. “It could have happened anywhere.”

His father was less diplomatic. Last year’s fatal shootings at Fairfax and Reseda high schools and the incident at Dorsey have caused him to question the value of public education.

“It’s appalling,” Clarence Johnson said. “Children need to feel safe in school. They should be thinking about college, not survival.”

Much of the task of restoring confidence fell on the shoulders of Dorsey High’s principal, Jerelene Wells.

For more than a decade, she has chimed in the new school year on the public address system with words of hope. This year’s message was tempered with tragic news.

“We must not allow this incident to change the positive tone you have set for yourself this school year,” she said.

Then, in closing, she reminded them of the importance of maintaining pride in themselves, their school and their community.

“Don’t forget Dorsey Pride,” she said.