Two people have been arrested following a fight at Tucson High Magnet School that caused the campus to be put on lockdown Tuesday.
Willie Smith, 40, was arrested and faces a felony charge of disrupting an educational institute, Tucson police said. A 15-year-old was also arrested for disorderly conduct fighting.
According to court records, Smith was called to the school to pick up his two sons who were being sent home due to an incident that happened on May 2 with another group of students. Smith was advised by school staff and school safety officers to leave campus with his sons through a back exit and not through campus, court records say.
Smith reportedly refused and said he didn’t need to leave that way and proceeded to take his sons through the courtyard during lunch, court records say. He told staff this was an ongoing issue and if not addressed there would be a problem, stating, “If it’s going down, it’s going down here.”
While walking through the courtyard, words were exchanged between the rival group and Smith’s sons’ group and a fight broke out, court records say. At one point, Smith engaged in mutual combat with a student, both reportedly threw punches at each other and Smith was observed pinning the kid to the ground by his neck.
Smith admitted to fighting with the student and said the kid was assaulting his son and he was defending his son and himself, court records say. Video and witness statements were not able to confirm who threw the first punch.
Smith said he didn’t feel they needed to go through the back gate since he was not advised by school staff what his kids had done wrong to be sent home, court records say. He also agreed that he could have handled things better.
Police said initial reports indicated that no weapons were involved, and no injuries were reported.
