Viking-Norman fights continue despite further precautions

The Samo-Beverly Hills altercation that began after the boys' varsity basketball game at Samo on Jan. 23 continued at Beverly Hills High School, Tuesday, Feb. 10, as extra security were steering fans of the rival teams through separate doors of the Beverly Hills gym after Samo’s 56-40 loss.Administration from both schools took the extra precaution of providing police and security for both teams’ fans, but once outside the gym, some students broke away from the escorts and a couple of fights occurred.Some students reported a continuation of the hostility that began after the previous game. According to Cami Khalili (’16), throughout the whole basketball match on Tuesday evening, fan sections for both schools chanted and taunted one another.“You could feel the anger on both sides and it was obvious something was going to happen,” Khalili said.Other spectators include Samo Principal Eva Mayoral and Jordan Keen (’16), who have reported that throughout the game they heard only spirited but respectful cheering as the Samo team fought for second place in Ocean League.According to Mayoral, the media coverage of the rivalry exacerbated an already volatile situation. She also claims that the antipathy between the two schools has been caused by the never-ending cycle of social media.“What’s behind this is that it’s a rivalry, people say things and due to the media it’s not said once, but 50,000 times,” Mayoral said.Many news stations have been camping outside both campuses in order to report on what one reporter called “Rich-on-Rich violence.” There were as many as four news vans waiting to interview spectators as they left the game and capturing some of the fights on camera.Despite the recent coverage, according to Pedro Flack (’16), the portrayal of Samo in the news has been anything but accurate.“I think it’s sad that the media portrays our school in such a negative light when we aren’t the ones who instigated the physical fight,” Flack said. “We are a great school and it is unfair that Beverly is portrayed as the victim in the situation that is caused by their students' taunting and resorting to physical force.”Keen said that media representation of both schools was bad for their reputations.“I thought it was a bad representation of both schools. Although there were multiple shoves and scuffles, those were decisions made by immature and unsportsmanlike individuals, which aren’t accurate examples of what Samo sports are about,” Keen said.dperdomo@thesamohi.com