Both Rialto Unified School District officials and the Colton Police Department are gingerly seeking to determine the circumstances surrounding a tussle between a male student and female student at Jehue Middle School that took place on March 10, in which the girl was apparently knocked out cold when she escalated the contretemps between them by flinging a laptop computer at the boy’s head.
The final minutes and immediate aftermath of the altercation between the two were caught on video. That footage depicts a mostly-one-sided struggle in which the considerably larger boy holds the girl, who seems intent on injuring him, at bay, showing a degree of forbearance until he determinedly overpowers her by slamming her headfirst into a desk.
There are conflicting reports of what led to the violence that took place, with suggestions that the girl intensified what started out as horseplay initiated by the boy, leading to the matter spiraling out of control. Based upon the initial response of the Colton Police Department, which arrested and booked both students, despite the girl apparently being knocked unconscious, her action has been deemed to be the more serious criminal violation.
Reportedly, the boy was using a squirt gun to irritate other students, and the girl responded by smacking him in the head repeatedly  with what has been described as a metal object. That part of what occurred is not shown on the video.
The video obtained by the Sentinel commences with the two already physically engaged.
The girl, an African-American who appears to be about 4-foot-11 or 5-foot and weigh in the neighborhood of 85 pounds, is seen swinging or flailing upward at the boy, a Latino who towers over her, appearing to be 5-foot-8 or so and to weigh approximately 140 pounds. He appears to be reluctant to go full bore against her and is hampered somewhat by the consideration that she had succeeded in pulling his pants down to the point that his belt line is below his underwear, which are fully visible. She reaches upward and appears to be clawing at his shirt and then his face. He pushes her down as she is then, it appears, pulling at his pants. He spins her around, and appears distracted, looking, it seems, away at someone who is not within the camera’s field of view. He steps back and she can be seen reaching up, perhaps gripping the collar of his shirt. He is still holder her down, while she is grasping and clawing toward his face with her right arm. She twists away from him and has her back turned to him, and he pushes her away. Throughout this part of the video, he appears to be only halfheartedly engaged in the fight with her, as if he just wants to hold her off and disengage. As he pushes her, she goes face first toward a table, upon which there is an open laptop computer. She grabs the laptop with her right hand while her back is too him and spins quickly and flings the laptop toward him as he bobs his head rapidly to his right, causing his glasses to partially dislodge as the laptop misses his tilted head by about four inches to his left. He reaches to reposition his glasses and she flails at his head with a righthanded punch, which obliges him to reach toward her with both arms and utilize his superior reach to hold her down and away from him. He spins her around, rather easily it appears, to his right, at which point the full length of his torso comes into the video camera’s field of view showing that she had previously succeeded in yanking his pants down a good six inches. He grapples with her as she continues to reach upward with her right hand scratching and attempting to gouge his face. She takes a hold of his glasses and pulls them from his face. At that point he utilizes his height and the angular advantage he possess to forcefully slam her head down into the tabletop, at which point she collapses onto the ground. No longer having to use his arms and hands to keep her away, he immediately pulls his pants up and then reaches down next to her to retrieve his glasses, putting them back on. Another male student goes to the girl who is prone on the floor, and turns her over. It appears that she is unconscious. Two girls walk up to him as the three stand over the fallen girl and there is a verbal exchange between them that is not clearly audible on the video. He does not appear to be concerned for the girl he has leveled, smiling bemusedly at the two girls who seem to be confronting him about what has happened. He then walks away as one of the girls bends down to tend to his vanquished combatant.
The video has audio, which captures the cacophony of sound in the room. Very little of that sound can be discerned as clearly audible words, phrases or sentences. Based on the continuing chatter, it does not seem that everyone in the room or even a majority in the room, who are not within the camera’s field of vision, are paying attention to the fight. At one point, a male student who is seated in a chair proximate to the grappling couple seems to be less than fully interested in what is happening just a few feet from where he is positioned. He watches the two fight, but continuously glances away at something else that is out of the camera’s field of vision.
When the girl throws the laptop, a male voice off camera can be heard saying, “Oh, no, baby!” Just before the boy slams the girl’s head into the desk, another male can be heard saying. “Chill the fuck out!” After the girl is on the ground, a male voice can be heard saying, “She’s knocked out, bro.”
Jehue Middle School consists of sixth, seventh and eighth grade classes. Though it is located in Colton, Jehue Middle School is part of the Rialto Unified School District. The incident took place in a 8th grade classroom.
The Colton Police Department put out a press release after a video of the incident was posted on multiple social media sites.
“The Colton Police Department is aware of a video circulating of an incident between two 14-year-[olds] that took place at Jehue Middle School the morning of March 10, 2025,” the press release states. “The incident was recorded by another student on [a] cellular phone.”
According to the police department, prior to what is seen on the video, the girl engaged in an assault that made her the aggressor and the boy her victim.
“The video does not show the incident where the victim was struck in the head multiple times by a metal object,” the press release says. “Officers responded to the school and conducted a thorough investigation. This included a statement from the teacher, who was present, and multiple other witnesses. As a result of the investigation, both students were issued citations and released to their parents.”
The Sentinel has learned that the girl was cited for felony assault with a deadly weapon and the boy was cited for misdemeanor battery.
According to the Colton Police Department, “The case will be forwarded to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, Juvenile Division, for review. It is important to recognize this incident is still being investigated and the Colton Police Department is working in collaboration with the Rialto Unified School District.”
The Rialto Unified School District has at this point suspended both students and will potentially be subject to expulsion.
The incident has wide implications. One is its racial component. Both the Rialto and Colton communities are heavily Hispanic. Within the Rialto Unified School District, 87 percent of the students are Latino, 8 percent are African American and 3 percent are Caucasian. Jehue Middle School students in particular are 91% Hispanic, 4.6% Black and 1.9% White. Black members of the community have expressed the belief that this racial disparity in which Latinos predominate led to the girl being wrongfully cataloged as the aggressor. This prejudice extended to the Colton Police Department, it was said, which had assigned a Hispanic detective to the case.
Feminists have weighed in, saying that the larger boy injured the girl and that she was the “victim” and not the perpetrator.
The video offers a somewhat troubling depiction of the atmosphere in the science class where the violence occurred. There appeared to be no regimentation whatsoever, no lecture taking place, no reading, no traditional schoolwork of any type going on.
The Sentinel has learned that there was a substitute teacher in the class that day. The one-minute-and-five-second video perhaps does not offer an accurate representation of the typical  classroom atmosphere at Jehue Middle School, as the teacher may have been seeking assistance at that time by leaving the classroom.  There was widespread criticism of the teacher for the lack of scholastic discipline that is apparent in the video and for not breaking up the fight. The district, however, instructs teachers to not intervene when students are fighting but to call in security officers or school proctors to deal with such situations.
-Mark Gutglueck