A verbal war on Twitter led to a brawl between students at a Plano high school last Friday and has landed two teens in juvenile lockup.
The district and police are concerned battles brewing between students could boil over again. With that in mind, police stepped up patrols at Vines High School to prevent more fallout.
"The two girls were kind of like enemies," said Vines freshman Kiyava Deville.
"The two girls involved had been fighting for a while. It had never gotten to this point," said Kiyava's mom, Mandy Deville.
According to Plano police, the Twitter war escalated with students posting encouragements on the girls fighting. On Friday, the talk turned physical when friends of the girls got involved. Police said a teen boy was arrested for assaulting a teacher and a teen girl was arrested for assaulting a police officer who presumably tried to step in to stop the fight and got caught up in the melee.
As a parent, Mandy hopes the arrests will make students think twice about letting fists fly in the future.
"I think they wanted to get an example that this kind of behavior is not going to be tolerated, and I think students got the message," Deville said.
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The district isn't taking any chances and hired on extra officers Monday.
Investigators have not had any reports that the fights involved weapons, though Twitter is filled with posts from students claiming they saw knives and insist some students were stabbed with pencils.
Police don't have any indication that any students were injured.
Parents hope their students can get back to the books.
"These kids are good kids and are really outraged by the fights that have been happening. I think it's going to die down and go back to normal pretty quick," Mandy Deville said.
Police told NBC 5 that they'll have extra officers at the school as long as there's a threat of more fights.
Plano police said more arrests are possible and that the investigation is ongoing.
