The San Matean

Issue date: 3/3/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Alexis Terrazas An injured victim is being lifted into an ambulance after the Feb. 20 altercation involving about 20 people.

San Mateo Police were called to CSM at noon on Tuesday Feb. 26, to assist in an altercation which involved more than 20 students and left one being taken to the hospital with a non life threatening wound.

At 12:13 p.m. the first call was made into the SMPD regarding students fighting in the main quad area. The fight was quickly dispersed by campus security who responded to the incident with help from the SMPD who arrived on campus about three minutes after the initial call was made. The altercation however was already done with and the SMPD was trying to get the details of the campus brawl along with eye witnesses statements.

"The fight started between two people who knew each other," said Police Lieutenant Mike Brunacardi. "The two men were fighting when one got knocked down and his friends came in to help."

The fight quickly escalated and consisted of about 20 students by the end. "The fight looked to be a bigger deal then it was," said John Wells, head of security at CSM. "Many people jumped in to try to stop the fight."

During the campus brawl one student was stabbed, resulting in non life threatening wounds. "We are unable to give out the name of the student who was sent to the hospital because of student and medical confidentiality," said Wells. "We hope there will be no more problems and since this was not something that was gang related we do not believe anything else should happen."

Students are worried that, because a couple of the people involved in the altercation were not CSM students, the schools safety is in jeopardy. "Since CSM is a tax supported school there is no way to fully close it off to people who are not students. The tennis courts as well as the track are occupied by many people who are not enrolled at CSM," said Wells

As of 1 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, the SMPD had made no arrests in connection to the situation that had happened on campus.

"Are the football players that were involved going to get in trouble?" one anonymous source had said "Some of them have scholarships on the line and that's not fair if they get it taken away."

CSM along with every other college in the United States is expected to send in a report about the schools safety and incidents that happened on campus throughout the year. This information is available online for people to view and in a way help them choose which college they want to attend. "CSM has not had anything of this nature reported," said Wells. "Last year on our report we only had 9 burglaries on campus which all involved motor vehicles," Wells continued

Situations like the brawl that had taken place on Tuesday are not normal to the CSM campus. "Hopefully this incident will not happen again," said Wells. "The situation was made out to be far worse then it was."

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