San Rafael school probes fight at football game

San Rafael High School staff is investigating a fight at Friday’s football home opener.

The fight during halftime involved “a few current SRCS students; a SRHS parent; and a recent SRHS graduate,” San Rafael City Schools superintendent Carmen Diaz Ghysels said in an email.

“We are thankful there were no injuries,” she said. No weapons were involved. Christina Perrino, a district spokesperson, said it was not clear what caused the incident. She said she expected more information to come out in the probe.

Police were not called at the time of the incident but are assisting, Lt. Scott Eberle said. No arrests have been made, he said.

Eberle said police have interviewed at least one person so far, but are still gathering names of those who might have been involved. He said police are also interested in viewing cellphone video that may have been submitted to the district.

The incident occurred in back of the concession stand, according to Gavin Madden, parent of a San Rafael player.

“The game was grossly understaffed in terms of security and administration,” Madden said in an email. “Friday nights in central Marin revolve around San Rafael High School football.”

School principal Joe Dominguez could not be reached for comment, but wrote in an email to a parent that there was sufficient security at the event but they were preoccupied at the time of the incident.

“At Friday’s game we had three school security guards and one administrator on staff,” Dominguez wrote. “Unfortunately, the fight you mentioned happened to occur when our administrator was escorting the ticket booth staff to the school safe to lock up the money from that evening.”

“I am sorry the security did not respond to the fight as quickly as needed,” he said. “I will look into this in addition to increasing our staffing.”

Casey Sully, San Rafael High School athletic director and varsity head football coach, declined comment.

Madden said that the incident on Friday was part of a pattern of a lack of safety and transparency at the high school. He said the district has funds for security at football games, but fails to use them. He declined to elaborate on previous incidents, as did the district administration.

“I’m sure the football families would love to know why the funds weren’t used on Friday, especially the father of the football player who tried to intervene and was attacked himself,” Madden said.

“San Rafael High School families want action, and so do the elementary and middle school parents who attend these games as they decide whether to send their kids to SRHS,” he said. “These parents are the ones who want to see change.”