Rising violence at Manor High School

MANOR (KXAN) - The Manor Independent School District is dealing with some serious growing pains.

And it seems as the student population increases, so does the violence.

In the past month and a half, the school has seen three high-profile crime incidents. In early October, a student was caught with a gun at Manor High. A few weeks later, two girl gangs were caught in a brawl - injuring several and landing 10 students in jail.

Just last week, student Chancellor Buie was charged for assaulting his assistant principal. The problem has gotten worrisome enough that Kim and Manor High School's principal meet with the Travis County Sheriff Monday morning to discuss safety at the high school.

"Being in a high school situation, we are always going to have issues,” said Manor ISD Superintendent Andrew Kim. “Things we are going to have to look at seriously. But at the same time, we can't solve all the problems ourselves."

Kim says that with the addition of 150 students at the high school this school year, there are new issues

For instance, Travis County Sheriff's office says it responded to 915 calls at Manor high school from Oct. 2008 until now - more than double the calls at Del Valle High school, which logged 481 during that same time.

"We're going to have to really reach out to our community, to our parents, to get them involved and help us solve this issue,” Kim said.

Since last month's gang fight, deputies are working with the district to enforce dress codes, school rules and codes of conduct that won't allow bad behavior.

New staff will soon be hired as well, including a "parent-liaison position that will be working with our community members," said Kim.