In recent weeks, West High’s favorite local mall, Del Amo, has had its fair share of action. On August 27, hundreds of Los Angeles locals ― mostly high school students ― stormed the mall, wreaking havoc and acting rowdy around the entrance to the AMC movie theater.
Reports say that many of these teens were sprinting around the mall getting into fights with one another: “Everybody was running up and down the escalator near AMC” Lauren Holden (12) said, “it was kind of hectic.” As the brawl raged on, things became more dangerous for people passing by ― so much so that an ambulance was called shortly after a man completely unrelated to the incident was trampled right outside of a Lazy Dog restaurant, sustaining minor injuries.
At this time, police don’t know of any motivation behind these teenager’s actions; however, some West High students who were present at the scene speculate that it may have sparked off of an anonymous social media post. Parth Mohnot (12) discovered that the post led to various LA county high school students coming to Del Amo to brawl: “It was probably a dull prospect, things like this have happened before without good reason.” Mohnot, who was present at the scene along with his friends on the day of the brawl, thinks that the whole situation was “pretty funny.” He reported that “[he] didn’t really see any West kids involved in the conflict.”
Mohnot’s friend, Josh Zhang (12) remembers when the situation got a little too real for his group of friends: “When the police started to show up in full gear with tasers and batons, we stopped laughing and got out of there pretty quickly.”
Police involvement in the situation has been a topic of controversy amongst Torrance locals, as apparently, a firearm was discharged that day amongst all the chaos. While nobody was shot, many people, Mohnot among them, believe that “it might not have been necessary to bring out an entire armada of police for this situation.” The question of whether the extent of police involvement in this situation was necessary is a polarizing one, considering that this isn’t the only situation in which Del Amo mall has faced chaotic violence by teenagers.
In December 2022 there was another mall fight, albeit one of smaller scale, where several groups of rowdy teenagers gathered and fought until the cops had to intervene. Earlier this year, a group of high school students got into a yelling match with an intoxicated man outside of Dave and Busters, which ended with weapons being drawn and the police being called.
Mall brawls are becoming more frequent, and it’s for that reason that West High students ought to be more cautious from here on out ― at least until authorities get a grasp on the situation. Considering that there were no West High students directly involved in the altercation, the most we can do as West high schoolers is to keep an eye out for warning signs on social media, and most of all, stay out of fights.
