But events on campus were not irrelevant, she added: "They don't know what's going to happen to them next year with the charter school. There's a lot of anxiety."
The school's official enrollment is about 2,600, although close to 20% are absent on any given day.
An additional 250 or so stayed home Monday, said interim Principal Travis Kiel, who came out of retirement when the district removed Principal Frank Wells near the end of the last school year. District officials removed Wells after he openly sided with Green Dot's efforts to take control at Locke.
Kiel admitted to a challenging year.
"I'd be insane to say there were no gang problems at this school," he said Monday.
Kiel has had to confront an explosion of gang graffiti as well as increased tension, said some teachers, because the school saw an influx of more students who live in a neighborhood associated with rival gangs.
In fact, students said that the fighting, though mostly black versus brown, also included black-on-black and Latino-on-Latino clashes.
Kiel estimated that about 75 students engaged in actual fighting, with many more watching.
Fernando Marenco, 16, an 11th-grader, said there was "a lot of chaos," and though students said they were scared, they were "still running toward the stampede."
Some students were jumped and pummeled as they tried to get to class.
Chanell Campbell, 16, said there had been talk that "something bad would happen" leading up to Friday. She said she saw students with gashed heads and broken noses.
Staff at Locke, including teachers, members of the security team and Kiel, said the district cut security staffing in half at the start of the year. Kiel said much of the staffing had been restored by winter break.
Another district official, Assistant Supt. Earl Perkins, said the reduction in security was minimal and brief, and that Locke has more security than last year.
Friday's scene "terrified" parent Vikki Reyes, who got a frantic cellphone call from her daughter, who had run off campus after being knocked down. The fall ripped her pants and bloodied her knee.
"As a parent, it was one of the scariest phone calls I had ever received," Reyes said, "to hear the cry in her voice, to know she was off campus and there was this war going on."
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howard.blume@latimes.com
