Mill Creek students expelled after food fight
The senior prom also has been suspended - at least until administrators can ensure it will be safe, said Mary Waggoner of the Everett School District.
Waggoner said the food fight broke out in the high school cafeteria at 11 a.m., during the first of three lunch periods. No one was hurt.
Video footage from the cafeteria showed scenes of chaos, with students running and hurling food items across the width of the cafeteria.
It was not clear how the school determined which students should be placed under emergency expulsion, since scores of other students also were involved in the food fight.
Fourteen students reportedly were expelled under the emergency order.
Waggoner said "emergency expulsion" is a legal term "that may sound more draconian to those who hear it than it really is."
She said the expelled students won't be allowed back at school until their parents have a conference with administrators.
"For a school principal, 'emergency expulsion' is an action he or she can take as a safety valve," Waggoner wrote in an e-mail to KOMO News. "It removes those involved in an incident from the mix so that the rest of the school population is safe."
She said an emergency expulsion allows the principal to set specific conditions for a student's return to school. In this case, the students can come back after they have sat with the administration and their parents to talk about their behavior and how they will act in the future.
Waggoner also says the school prom is being suspended so that school officials can make sure students will remain behaved and safe.
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