Reports of Midlands school fights, assaults rose at these schools last fall
Law enforcement was called to more than 100 calls of fights and assaults at Midlands high schools earlier this school year, documents reviewed by The State showed.
The sheriff’s departments in Richland and Lexington counties reported 104 calls for assault during the fall of 2024, more than the 90 assaults reported a year earlier.
Spring Valley had the most reported assaults, with 23 incidents that led to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department being called.
At least seven of those reports were fights or assaults involving multiple participants. In one case, a boy reported being pulled into a bathroom and assaulted by four other boys, two of whom were identified from surveillance footage and charged with assault by mob. At another time, two students dropped their backpacks and started fighting while waiting in the bus loop, causing other students to jump in. One student reported being bitten on the shoulder by another during a confrontation.
In Lexington County, Chapin High School had the highest number of assault reports during the semester, with nine. Most of those involved mutual combat between students, but at least two involved students striking teachers.
Between the two schools, three reports were confrontations involving parents. A father at Chapin was reported because he allegedly choked his daughter on the way to school because she missed the bus, leaving marks on her neck. In another instance, a fight between multiple students at a Spring Valley football game over who should be homecoming queen escalated when the mother and grandmother of one of the students got involved in the fight.
One parent reported a school shooting threat against Spring Valley was made in a group text chain, although he reported he was subsequently unable to find the threatening text.
A year earlier, Spring Valley had only five assault reports during the fall semester, and Chapin hadn’t reported any. Lower Richland had 24 fights in the fall of 2023 compared to 10 this fall. White Knoll went from 19 to eight, and Irmo High from 13 to four.
The total number of calls for high schools in the two counties reported were:
- Spring Valley - 23
- Westwood - 14
- A.C. Flora - 13
- Lower Richland - 10
- Chapin High - 9
- White Knoll - 8
- Irmo High - 4
- Keenan - 4
- Lexington High - 4
- Richland Northeast - 4
- Blythewood - 3
- Gilbert - 3
- Dutch Fork - 2
- Swansea - 2
- Columbia High - 1
.jpg)