DATE: Saturday, October 18, 1997            TAG: 9710180338

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   55 lines

STUDENT FACES RIOT CHARGE IN BRAWL AT WILSON HIGH HE ATTENDS ANOTHER PORTSMOUTH SCHOOL.

A 17-year-old student was charged Friday with inciting a riot in connection with the melee that broke out Tuesday at Woodrow Wilson High School, police said.

The student attends another Portsmouth school, police said, but was in the Wilson building when the fighting erupted. Police would not release the name of that school for fear that it would result in some type of retaliation, according to Lindsay Disbrow, police spokeswoman.

Officers received information about the student and apprehended him when he showed up at Wilson on Friday.

He was charged with one count of assault, one charge of possession of a weapon on school property, two counts of trespassing and one count of inciting a riot, Disbrow said.

Disbrow said the school police detective, Mark Lewis, received information that the student had displayed a knife during the school brawl.

He is being held in the Tidewater Detention Home.

Also, Disbrow said fire marshals notified the police department that they will charge two 16-year-old Wilson students with activating the fire alarm.

Disbrow said that the investigation will continue and that charges against other students are pending.

Friday's charges come after those filed against a 16-year-old Wilson boy, who was charged Wednesday with disorderly conduct and taken to the Tidewater Detention Home.

Tuesday's brawl sent 22 students to the school nurse and three pregnant students to Maryview Hospital, where they were checked and released. Wilson was closed to students Wednesday while faculty and administrators devised a better safety plan for the school. In that meeting, teachers identified trespassers as one of several problems plaguing the school. They urged Superintendent Richard Trumble to consider identification cards for Wilson students.

Seniors at the school had spent three to four hours in the school auditorium Tuesday because two other grade levels were taking standardized tests. The students grew restless and started some horse play, which later broke out into scattered fights.

Students evacuated the building when a fire alarm was pulled, which caused more fights to erupt in the commons area. Police had to be called to restore order.

Kerri Albertson, district spokeswoman, said everything proceeded smoothly at Wilson on Friday. While every student was searched Thursday, students were checked at random Friday.

Albertson said stationary metal detectors also were installed Friday to replace searches done with metal detector wands.

School administrators are currently determining which students will be suspended or expelled for their involvement in the brawl Tuesday. KEYWORDS: RIOT PORTSMOUTH SCHOOLS

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