On Wednesday morning, there was a “shouting match” reported at Crookston High School between students.
The Crookston Police Department responded to the incident. The common procedure for altercations that happen within the school district is to notify the district School Resource Officer (S.R.O.) Don Rasicot. The Crookston Police Department can also respond to these incidents to back Rasicot up in case he is not in the building that needs help at that time due to Rasicot overseeing all six buildings in the school district. Once law enforcement is contacted in a school setting, teachers and staff allow them to de-escalate the situation.
“I think in any situation when you have something like this, even for a shouting match, we just don’t want it to escalate,” said Superintendent Randy Berquist. “The more help we can get for a situation like this so it doesn’t escalate, we hope we can stop it the situation from escalating more.”
CHS also went into a soft lockdown to ensure the safety of all students by restricting access to the hallways. Classes still went as scheduled. Superintendent Randy Bergquist said the altercation lasted between 15 and 20 minutes from when it started to when it was broken up by police and staff.
“This was an isolated situation between high school students, in the high school wing in the bathroom actually right next to my office,” said Bergquist. “There was no punching, no weapons used, it was a shouting match.”
The altercation between the two students was strictly verbal. There were no weapons used, or physical force. Nobody was harmed during the incident.
The Crookston Police Department will decide if any criminal charges will be issued. The administration will review the case to determine if other measures need to be addressed. “Administration will work on consequences from the school,” said Bergquist. “We’ll figure it out if any behavior has caused concerns or problems those students will be dealt with on the other side of this.”
The Crookston Police Department and CHS staff will meet on Thursday to discuss the next steps from the events that occurred on Wednesday morning.
