FERRIDAY — Police arrested five students and two parents this week for fighting at Ferriday High School.

Ferriday Police Department responded Wednesday to a report of students fighting on campus.

Investigator Richard Madison said officers arrested five students during the altercation, and that the fight appeared to stem from a disagreement that began over spring break.

James E. Lott, 17, 496 Lincoln Apartments; James E. Johnson Jr., 18, 109 Crescent Drive; Ja’Tayus L. Johnson, 17, 2793 U.S. 15; Ted’Ron Gullage, 17, 257 Smart Lane; and Jerome Betaley, 17, 361 Doty Road, were arrested Wednesday on charges of disturbing the peace by fighting.

On Friday, school administration called several parents to the high school for a disciplinary hearing in regards to the Wednesday incident, but while waiting for the hearing to begin approximately 1:15 p.m., Madison said some of the parents began arguing.

Madison said the verbal argument became heated and administrators asked them to leave campus.

While leaving the campus, the argument escalated into a fight between both parents and students and Madison said administrators called Ferriday police to come break up the fight.

“The school tried to break up the fight,” Madison said. “And the two students tried to break it up, but they had to call us over there.”

Two parents and two students were arrested during the Friday altercation.

Teyka Gullage, 40, 410 Russ Road; Cassandra Butler, 41, Calbrial L. Smith and Ja’Tayius Johnson, 17, all of 27393 U.S. 15, were arrested Friday on charges of disturbing the peace by fighting.

Madison said the investigation revealed that the fight began over spring break between students living on Doty Road and students in Ferriday town limits.

That fight carried over into the school, Madison said.

“School is a place of learning and no fighting will be tolerated,” Madison said. “Action will be taken to correct this bad behavior.”

When students fight, Madison said, a parent is called to the campus for a disciplinary hearing.

“Parents are supposed to be a part of the disciplinary process,” Madison said. “But when parents contribute to the altercation, what do you do?”

Concordia Parish School District Superintendent Whest Shirley said the investigation is in its early stages, but that his administrators do not take such altercations lightly.

“When a parent disrupts the learning process on campus, that parent is banned,” Shirley said. “I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but if they were doing that, we might have to.”

Shirley said school administrators would not have scheduled disciplinary hearings at the same time, and that he did not know why different sets of parents were present at the same time.

Shirley said in the case of student fights, some students may be sent to alternative school placements to deter further altercations, but in the case of parents, the school can only banish those parents from returning to campus.

“I don’t know if we’ll have to do that,” Shirley said, “but if the they do something that warrants banishment, we will.”