WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — A witness to a brawl between two teenage girls in the Academies of West Memphis gym Wednesday afternoon tells WREG one of the girls seen in a viral video may have removed her pants because they were too tight to fight in.
“The girl was like, ‘My pants is tight, let me take them off,'” said the witness, who wanted to remain anonymous.
Many had wondered about the rationale behind the half-naked lunchtime fight which ended in both girls being arrested.
“I was just wondering why the kids was getting out their clothes. I never seen it happen before,” said concerned parent Aretha Poney.
But Poney said she was more concerned about the safety of her two children who attend the school.
At one point in the video, the pant-less girl is slammed into a trophy display case, shattering the glass.
“She got cuts on her arm a little bit from the glass falling on her arm,” said the witness.
Students eventually broke up the fight, but adults were nowhere to be seen.
“We was in the gym by ourself. All the students, no grown people,” she said.
There was heightened security Thursday including sheriff’s deputies and police officers in both marked and unmarked cars.
“I hope they continue the security ’cause they have a lot of students there, and one or two police officers just can’t handle it,” said Poney.
When WREG asked school administrators about the fight we first reported Wednesday night, they gave us only a three-sentence statement that did little to shed light on the matter.
It reads, “West Memphis Police Department transported two juveniles to the Crittenden County Detention Center. This matter is still under investigation. No further information will be released after this prepared statement.”
WREG is not releasing the names of the girls because of their ages. It also isn’t clear what charges they may be facing.
WREG was told by the witness that the fight might have stemmed from a dispute over some kind of relationship.
Students told WREG some of their fellow classmates got into trouble for recording the fight, but WREG was unable to confirm that with the school.
