NEWPORT BEACH : Youth Stabs Rival With Pencil in Fight

An intermediate school student stabbed another youth with a pencil Friday morning during a fight that police said may have been race-related.

Police did not identify the stabbing victim. But they said he was a student at Newport Harbor High School and that he had apparently been fighting over a female student. He was treated for his wounds at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach and released.

Sgt. Andy Gonis said the stabbing took place during a brawl near the corner of Coral Place and Saint Andrews Road that involved at least two white students from the high school and about eight Latino students from Ensign Intermediate School.

Police said they arrested an Ensign School student--an admitted gang member--on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Gonis said police will transfer the suspect to Orange County Juvenile Hall in Orange. His name was withheld because of his age.

Seven other Ensign students were detained for questioning in connection with the stabbing and were released to their parents, police said.

Friday morning’s brawl grew out of a verbal exchange Thursday between one student from each school over a female, Gonis said. That fight, on the Ensign campus, ended without serious injury, said Gonis and Ensign Intermediate Principal Scott Paulsen.

On Friday, the same two students were involved in the street brawl, police said. The Friday morning incident began when Gonis said a high school student--an admitted white supremacist--began yelling racial slurs at a Latino student from Ensign shortly after 8 a.m.

A short time later, at least seven other Latino students from Ensign and one other high school student joined the fracas. The fight broke up after the high school student was stabbed in the side, police said.

Gonis said the fight is being investigated as a possible hate crime and that further charges may be brought against the youths involved.