After a fight broke out between Columbia High School students and Irvington students at a recent football game at Underhill Field, school administrators plan to implement certain changes that they hope will prevent other similar incidents.
The incident came to light at Thursday’s Board of Education meeting, after it was mentioned by 2nd VP Nubia DuVall Wilson in her monthly Finance, Facilities and Technology committee report.
CHS Principal Frank Sanchez sent the following letter to students on September 18 after the incident:
Dear Students
I want to thank you for your behavior these past two football games. As I mentioned earlier in the year, we were going to return with evening games this year as long as students demonstrated appropriate behavior.
So far, you have modeled great behavior and I look forward for that to continue at our next few games.
On Thursday though, we had a major issue. We looked at the security video and it is clear that after the game several students from Irvington came to the CHS side and started a fight with some of our current and former students. Although the fight was short, some students got hurt when others started to run.
Your safety is my primary concern. That is why Mr. Porfido and I have spoken with our counterparts in Irvington to make sure this does not happen again, especially since there was an issue last year at the basketball game. We will be moving the CHS-Irvington basketball game to different times and we may have to do the same with football games moving forward if this rivalry continues to be tense.
Moving forward, CHS students with IDs will pay $3 for student tickets while students from outside of Columbia as well as former CHS students will be charged the adult price.
We want to make sure you enjoy your football evenings with friends and family and not worry about any altercations among students. Again, continue representing CHS in a positive manner.
If you would like to meet me with any concerns or questions, please reach out.
Thank you, Mr. Sanchez
In response to questions from Village Green, District Communications Director Paul Brubaker sent the following statement:
“Police officers are present at every Columbia High School Football home game, and they were on-site during the game against Irvington. Security guards, administrators, and teachers are also present at every home game. The fight lasted for less than a minute. No students were injured during the fight. On the following Monday, one student reported that she was hurt as students ran away. The details of the injury were not reported.”
