NEWS 8 EXCLUSIVE
DALLAS — The Dallas school district may be closed on Friday, but more than 150,000 students didn't get the day off after snow began falling Thursday morning.
While students were obligated to attend class, News 8 has learned that not all staff members showed up.
Without adequate supervision, it didn't take long for chaos to erupt at Skyline High School in front of our cameras.
For nearly 10 minutes, students in the school yard were observed watching, cheering, and encouraging a rolling wave of violence. Brutal blows were exchanged between students — boys battled boys and girls attacked girls.
What started as class-skipping romp in the snow, turned chaotic within an hour.
School security was nowhere in sight.
"You also have to understand that when there are this many kids outside, security can't stop all of them," said DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander.
But News 8 watched for more than an hour without any sign of adult supervision.
After a few minutes, a WFAA-TV crew decided to present the only adult presence on the scene; we were met with threats and flying snowballs.
Some students said there was little point of even coming to school on Thursday; one said teachers were helping them toss snowballs at security officers, who ran away.
One Skyline student was injured so badly he was transported to a local hospital.
"Snowball fights are sometimes fun and then sometimes they escalate out of control, and that's what happened in this case," Dahlander said.
DISD officials are standing by their decision not to cancel school Thursday, saying the roads were fine at 6 a.m., when a decision would need to be made.
But the snow was bad enough that 50 staff members at Skyline High School chose to stay at home.
"We're concerned that several staff members didn't show up today, which obviously was part of the catalyst for this taking place," Dahlander said. "There wasn't enough supervision for those students."
While DISD students and teachers who did come to school were required to stay all day, News 8 has learned that central administrative staffers got to go home an hour early.
Separately, Dallas ISD confirms Woodrow Wilson High School went into lock-down after students started a snowball fight between classes - not a fist fight.
Administrators responded immediately, Dahlander said, and dozens of students involved were taken into the auditorium and the school was put under a 30-minute lockdown. Wilson slowly returned to its normal classroom schedule, Dahlander added.
E-mail bshipp@wfaa.com and jwhitely@wfaa.com
