Holt cafeteria workers on administrative leave after scuffle with students Monday
This story has been updated.
HOLT — Two cafeteria workers are on administrative leave after an argument with a group of Holt High School students escalated into a scuffle Monday.
Holt Public Schools Superintendent David Hornak wrote in a letter to families Wednesday that the district was investigating a physical altercation between students and staff.
Student witnesses told the district that a contracted employee attempted to clear a group of students from an area of the cafeteria and the situation escalated, Hornak wrote. He wrote that the staff member and students reportedly exchanged racial epithets, after which an uninvolved student struck the staffer and a second cafeteria worker physically intervened.
"The district has also been in communication with local law enforcement and will continue to collaborate with them during its parallel review," he wrote Wednesday.
Sophomore Joy Williams, who witnessed the incident and provided a video, didn't know what sparked the argument, but said she heard it grow tense after the staffer, who is white, and the students, who are Black, used an anti-Black slur.
"(A) student slapped the lunch lady, then another lunch lady swung at the student," Williams said.
School resource officers at the high school pulled the group apart and took statements.
Both staffers were placed on administrative leave pending an investigation and the student who struck the staff member was removed from the building pending further review.
No charges had been filed as of Tuesday, said Chief Assistant Prosecutor Mike Cheltenham of the Ingham County Prosecutor's Office.
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Contact reporter Krystal Nurse at (517) 267-1344 or knurse@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @KrystalRNurse.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: 2 Holt cafeteria workers on leave after fight with students
