23 charged after fights at Greenwood High School jamboree

GREENWOOD, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - The Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office said 23 people were charged following the fights that broke out during the Greenwood High School jamboree on Friday, August 12.

On Thursday, deputies said the number of people charged rose to 23. According to deputies, they’re reviewing the footage from the department, the district and those who witnessed the fight.

The sheriff’s office also said the individuals received the following charges:

• 20 were charged with assault and battery third-degree
• 1 was charged with assault and battery second-degree
• 2 was charged with resisting arrest
• 1 was charged with assault on a teacher

On Sunday, Greenwood District 50 announced that schools would operate on a normal schedule on Monday despite the fights. However, officials said there was more law enforcement and staff at each school for precautionary reasons. The district announced this plan in the following statement from Superintendent Dr. Steve Glenn.

“Greenwood School District 50 will operate on a normal schedule tomorrow, Monday, August 15th. Local law enforcement has questioned multiple individuals that were involved in the incident that occurred at Friday night’ s Greenwood High School Jamboree. At this time, there have been no threats made to any of our schools. Most of the individuals who were involved in Friday night’ s altercation have been identified and will be disciplined according to the law and School Board policy. This type of behavior will not be tolerated in our school district. Those who choose to disrupt our schools and functions happening on our campuses will be prosecuted to the fullest extent. As a precaution, we will have additional law enforcement and staff in our schools and around our campuses on Monday morning. Our job as educators is to teach our children. As always, we will continue to work with our school administration and law enforcement to provide a safe learning environment for our students and staff on a daily basis.”

This was the second statement that the district gave on the fights. On Saturday morning, Greenwood District 50 released the following regarding the incident at the jamboree.

“Last night, the Greenwood Jamboree was cancelled due to multiple juveniles fighting near the concession stand. The juveniles involved in the altercations were from numerous schools participating in the Jamboree. There were no gunshots fired during the incident. Law enforcement was on the scene and responded swiftly to resolve the altercations.

Multiple individuals sustained injuries during the incident and those with major injuries were transported by EMS to Self Regional. The incident is currently under investigation by law enforcement and individuals involved in the altercations were taken into custody. Individuals involved in this incident will be prosecuted and disciplined to the fullest extent of the law and School Board policy.

We take these matters very seriously and will work with law enforcement to make sure these incidents will not take place in the future. Please know that along with all of our standard safety protocols and procedures, we will be implementing other safety measures at future events. As always, our top priority is the safety of our students, staff, and community. We appreciate your support in helping to keep our students, staff and community safe.”

According to officials, law enforcement at the game responded to resolve the incident, but no shots were fired.

“We just had a few juveniles get into a fight we had several different fights in different areas,” said Greenwood County Sheriff Dennis Kelly, “people out at concession area not watching football games, don’t know what they were fighting about at this point, still doing investigating on that end.”

The Sheriff’s Office later shared a post asking for information about this incident.

The incident is under investigation by law enforcement.

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