Clayton News Daily

MORROW — Clayton County Sheriff’s officials subpoenaed cell-phone video Wednesday of a gang-related fight earlier this week at Morrow High School.

The “jump in” — slang for assaulting someone to initiate him or her into a gang — occurred after school Monday as buses were loading, according to Clayton County Sheriff’s spokesman James Beveridge.

The alleged perpetrators, all female, have yet to be identified, Beveridge said, but a cell-phone video was taken by a student on one of the buses and later turned over to a school-resource officer.

The victim, a 14-year-old girl, had one of her small fingers broken and received “numerous cuts and abrasions to the head,” said Beveridge.

When she was later brought to Southern Regional Medical Center, hospital officials notified the Clayton County Police Department, which is now investigating with assistance from the sheriff’s department.

An 18-year-old Hispanic male on his way to board the bus apparently was also caught in the fight, at first receiving blows from behind and then “multiple strikes from all around,” Beveridge said. The male ended up with a knot on his head and a black eye.

Clayton County Schools spokesman David Waller said the district waited for the sheriff’s subpoena rather than turning the video over sooner because it prefers to err on the side of caution and honor federal regulations protecting students’ privacy.

“We have a legal and a moral obligation to protect our children first and foremost, so we have to do everything we can to ensure the video does not wind up in the public domain,” Waller said. “That’s how we protect our kids.”