When high school sophomore Mykia Moore got into an argument with her best friend over a boy last year at Augustus Hawkins High School in South Los Angeles, the dispute quickly escalated into a physical fight.
“She thought I wanted her boyfriend, because he texted me saying he wished he met me first,” Moore said. “And I was like, 'I hope you know I have to tell my friend this before she thinks I’m talking to her boyfriend behind her back.'”
When Moore went to her friend, things seemed to go well. The friend said she believed Moore would not do anything to hurt her. Then, other students began to spread rumors that said otherwise.
“Other people were in her ear, telling her that I wanted him. So we started to fight over ‘He said, she said,’” Moore said.
As the fight continued, Moore said she became angrier and angrier. Next thing she knew, she hit her friend.
“I hit her first,” Moore said. “I really let my anger take over and get the best of me."
Instead of getting suspended by the school’s administrators and teachers who stopped the fight, Moore caught a break. Three days after the fight, she was sent to her school’s restorative justice program coordinator, Joseph Luciani.
[For more of this story, written by Sarah Zahedi, go to http://jjie.org/south-la-high-...ension-rates/108576/]
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