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# Fighting at Samohi prompts lockdown
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/fighting-at-samohi-prompts-lockdown/
- Published: 2005-04-16T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T06:39:19.000Z
- Author: Ryan Hyatt
- Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import

SAMOHI — A lunchtime melee involving dozens of students prompted the campus here to go into lockdown, alarming parents who received anxious phone calls from their children relegated to their classrooms.

School officials acknowledged they were aware an altercation may have been brewing between students late in the morning at Santa Monica High School. They responded quickly when at least six fights broke out on the campus during the lunch hour. The Santa Monica Police were called to the scene at 12:44 p.m. to help secure the campus after a message was broadcast announcing students were to return to their classrooms for a lockdown.

John Deasy, Santa Monica- Malibu Unified School District superintendent, said 30 to 40 students stopped fighting, but would-n’t return to class.

“This was not a lockdown that occurred, say, because there was a shooting on campus,” Deasy said. “Samohi officials erred on the side

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/041605-01_01.jpg)

A Santa Monica High School student is escorted away shortly after a series of fights broke out on campus around lunchtime. (Photo: Alejandro Cesar Cantarero II/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 16, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/041605.pdf?ref=smdp.com)