Virginia’s largest high school cancels 2 days of classes after fights

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Northern Virginia’s largest high school has canceled the final two days of classes in 2024 after fights at the school resulted in injuries to students and staff.

Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt said in a letter Wednesday to families that classes would be canceled Thursday and Friday at the city’s only high school, Alexandria City High School, formerly known as T.C. Williams.

Kay-Wyatt said the closures were implemented amid concerns that additional fights were possible Thursday and Friday.

The school has about 4,000 students, the largest student body of any public high school in the state, according to the Virginia High School League.

With the high school closed, students were being switched to what the school system called “asynchronous instruction,” meaning that students were expected to log in online and pick up assignments and instructional materials.

Kay-Wyatt did not specify the extent of the injuries suffered by students and staff in her letter. A school system spokesperson declined Thursday to comment beyond the superintendent’s letter.

Alexandria police said that two students were charged with assault and battery after school resource officers responded to multiple altercations Wednesday around noon in school hallways and the cafeteria.

Police said they are aware of one student who left the school with a parent to receive treatment at a clinic. They said a woman seen down on the floor in a video clip shared on social media refused medical attention on the scene and declined to file a police report.

The city’s police chief, Tarrick McGuire, said in a written statement that “inciting violence and disorder within a school is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,”

Kay-Wyatt called the incidents “disheartening and said, ”Our school community deserves better and counts on us to provide a safe place for teaching and learning.”

The school has been the center of debate in recent years over whether police school resource officers should be deployed. In 2021, the city council voted to end funding for school resource offers, but reversed course later in the year after a series of fights and a lockdown in which a student brought a gun to school.