Eliminating night games is possibility after East fight

By ANGIE SCHMITT

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown City School District may consider eliminating nighttime athletic events after a violent outburst at the East-Chaney basketball game Friday, board Vice President Lock P. Beachum Sr. said.

The game was canceled in the fourth quarter Friday after a fight broke out in the stands between two female students. Another fight may have followed, according to reports from witnesses. Though as many as a dozen police cruisers were on the scene, no formal police report on the incident was available late Sunday.

Eight years ago, the district shifted game times to 5 p.m. in an effort to curtail fighting between students, said Beachum.

“This is something we need to study as a board,” said Beachum.

“One or two people may have been the cause of this ... one or two people can be part of a cancer that spreads.”

Beachum, the former principal at both East and North high schools and grandfather of an East High student, said he is under the impression that tensions between the two schools were not the cause of the problem.

Last year, the district reduced its number of high schools from three to two. Wilson and Rayen high schools were closed but Chaney remains open and a new East High School was constructed. Nearly all of Rayen’s former students go to East, while Wilson’s student body was split about evenly between East and Chaney.

District spokesman Mike McNair said he had not been briefed about the incident but that administrators would review the situation today.

“There will likely be some actions to suspend the students involved,” he said. “How many students, what schools [they went to], that will come together.”

aschmitt@vindy.com