Why firefighters (with his looong ladder) normally called to the scene where is no fire?
can anybody tell me?

They've got to earn their $200k+ salaries one way or another.

The police likely called fire (IE paramedic), once the boy was found to be injured.
Can't you read:
The 13-year-old punched the 14-year-old in the head multiple times, Wylie said.

The fire department responded to check out the 14-year-old's injuries

The police cannot respond and treat injuries unless they are there own(police force) injury.

"the police cannot respond and treat injuries unless they are there own(police force) injury"

Again, they've got to earn their $200k+ salaries one way or another.

What ever happened to the school nurse or just calling the parents?

what wrong with how much they earn?? MV Police doesn't have a Paramedic unit that i know of so they called the FD and i think there just around the corner to.

What's wrong??? The city can't afford it!

What is wrong? They can do it for much less. That way there may even be some money left for the schools and libraries too.

school nurse? what galaxy are you living in? California schools don't have school nurses anymore. they can't afford them. the school DISTRICT has a nurse. the schools don't.

The 14 year old is probably the laughing stock of the school. Lucky for him the year is almost over.
Hopefully he'll watch the Karate Kid and take some pointers.

Let me set it straight for those that don't really know much about schools, fire departments, and government in general. A school nurse is someone that can tell you to go home because your sick and put a band-aid on you (plus the schools don't have them anymore because they did not do anything). The fire department may put out a fire or rescue you from your car when you crash it but the majority of fire related calls are medical; therefore, think of the fire department as a rolling hospital to get you there faster with advanced life saving skills that will help you survive (Think about why they deserve to be paid well...they are dealing with advanced life saving just as the hospital staff does). Those that are getting paid very well are like you adminstrators that have to oversee everything and have specialized training. I ask you think about what you write and review it before you hit the submit button. I don't want a bunch of lower qualified non-medical people looking at my children or myself when I am injuried. Thank you Mountain View Fire Fighters for being there. Thank you police for being there to deal with this mess. We should be billing the parents for the cost of all involved.

What's wrong with calling the fire department? They're getting paid either way. Might as well go out on a call.

I bet they brought at least three fire trucks too. What did they accomplish? Is the kid safe on life support now over at the El Camino hospital?

Re: the submission by "Please" above - READ IT, folks!!
And, you may learn something instead of being absorbed in your
own ignorance, narrow-mindedness and self-perceived cleverness.
As an aside, if you need help from the Fire Dept. or the Police
Dept. at 4 in the morning, someday, during some traumatic episode,
give 'em a call - they're getting paid either way, right?
And, you might consider thanking these people for their service
when you have an opportunity.

they should bill the hell out of the parents for this.

Were the kids involved USA citizens? I doubt it, Deportation is the answer.

Jus'me:

You are the one drowning in your own ignorance.

Careful if you call 911 in the middle of the night since you are likely to get billed for the "rolling hospital", as Please calls it, when it shows up at your door. That is, unless you are illegal, then the whole cost gets written off on and charged to the taxpayer.

More rational minds will tell you that knee-jerk reactions to calling 911 are what are driving up costs. Most so-called "emergencies" today are nothing more than bumps and scrapes for the past. In this case the school was no doubt covering it's behind from the threat of a lawsuit.

Good grief!

A rare disturbance occurs at Graham, a couple of boys take a punch or two at each other over a misunderstanding about a backpack.

This event was so minor, such a non-issue, and it's reported in the newspaper?! Next time my neighbor yells at her dog will that be a story in the Voice?

And this one little incident leads to a contentious discussion about police and firefighters salaries, illegal immigration, whether or not school nurses went the way of the dinosaurs, and, predictably, immigration.

How about a story about all the students who worked so hard in school this year and are now proudly graduating? All the kids who were "reclassified" so that they are no longer English learners? The MVHS graduates who are going to places like Princeton next year? There are much better stories to be written about what's happening in the schools.

Most kids leaving Graham to high schools are socially promoted. Many of those who are Hispanics will never even finish high school or graduate. The kid who threw the punches and maybe the one who received them will be expelled and most likely wind up in the alternative high school Alta Vista, where he or she will be told they can graduate with an equivalent HS diploma (year right). Meanwhile, police and fire services and unions will continue to drain the city of revenues at the expense of parks, recreation and youth services. Definitely no story here.

Bravo, Robin!

I guess the flip side is, its good to live in a community where something as minor as a scuffle between two teenage boys is even slightly noteworthy. But, yeah, its a shame that the only time the Voice covers local youth is something like this. Zero coverage of youth sports, performing arts, academic achievements, high school graduations, etc. But this story will certainly be on the front page this week.

Those on this board airing out gripes about immigration and police overtime (not to mention making fun of children!) here show substantially less maturity than the student body at Graham!

"Zero coverage of youth sports, performing arts, academic achievements, high school graduations, etc."

Not true, eric. Once again you focus more on attacking other posters than commenting on the story. The story and comments have merit, even if you don't think so

@Taxpayer: "Most kids leaving Graham to high schools are socially promoted. Many of those who are Hispanics will never even finish high school or graduate." - Not true. Some kids are behind acadmically, yes, but "most" is simply not true. (I love the term "social promotion." As if you can keep a kid in 8th grade for 3 or 4 years until they master English or Algebra. 18-year olds on a middle school campus, nice. Try it and see what happens to the atmosphere on that campus, and what the dropout rate is like then. Sky-high.) The dropout rate at our high schools is low and the graduation rate for kids from ALL ethnic groups is very high.

"The kid who threw the punches and maybe the one who received them will be expelled and most likely wind up in the alternative high school Alta Vista, where he or she will be told they can graduate with an equivalent HS diploma (year right)."

You know ZERO about who these kids were, what their ethnicity is, what caused the fight, whether they are good students or not. And you obviously know ZERO about Alta Vista, which has been honored many times for being a model continuation high school. They get REAL high school diplomas, not equivalencies. They have a very high graduation rate compared to other continuation schools. Every Alta Vista student is enrolled in Foothill or DeAnza college before they graduate, it's a grad requirement. The principal and staff are dedicated to helping these kids get their lives back on track, and do a fantastic job.

@le dude: "Careful if you call 911 in the middle of the night since you are likely to get billed for the "rolling hospital", as Please calls it, when it shows up at your door. That is, unless you are illegal, then the whole cost gets written off on and charged to the taxpayer." I have called 911 in the middle of the night more than once when someone in my family was injured or ill. The fire department's paramedic truck was there very quickly, the paramedics were very helpful and professional, and I never received a bill. And I'm not even "an illegal."

So can people please stick to posting on what they know about? Jeesh.

@huh?--- show me the stories then

WOW IGNORANCE SHOULD BE A CRIME, to bad it is not.... I hope those(eric, mr. and le dude)find something to do besides show us all how uneducated and racist they are.
I agree about the lack of positive coverage for our students, It would be nice to see some regular coverage of success stories in our city.

I do however have one correction for the story. My child witnessed the entire situation and there was NO backpack involved. I am wondering who made that story up. The boys or the staff to cover themselves. BULLYING, that is what this was about. But wouldn't that be impossible since we don't have bullying problems here. This was one boy teasing another boy (that appearantly gets picked on quite often...bullied) and when he fought back the bully that started it hit him in the back of the head.

Unfortunately this is not a rare incident for graham. It is just rare that the police had to be called. There are fights like this every day and drug availability...
Its funny how there is a crackdown on 10-14 students selling pot and cocaine and arrests followed but you don't hear about that in the voice... nor are any parents informed about this so they can talk to their children about it.

I

So what you are saying then is not all is how it seems at Graham? They claim there's no bullying when there is? There are no drugs at Graham but there are? Don't forget there are no gangs either, and that all test scores and graduation rates for Hispanics are as high as for the rest of the population.

@Steve and parent from Martens-Carmelita: No one says there is no bullying. (Note the recent articles about the district implementing anti-bullying programs. Which got them a lot of criticism, probably from you same people.) Bullying happens everywhere. If you have the magic answer, please share it with us and the rest of the world; then all those authors who write book after book on the subject can go find other work. Please, really, enlighten us.

Fights probably do happen more frequently than everyone is reported. I just know that my kids have been there for a total of 6 years and have never seen one -- not one -- fight, so the impression that people get beat up in the hallways routinely is just untrue. I think they happen occasionally, and the kids are disciplined appropriately.

Drugs. I'm sure there are some kids at Graham who use drugs. As there are at Blach, Egan, Crittenden, Mountain View High, Los Altos High, St. Francis High, and most likely at the upper grades of St Simon, St Joseph, and all the other public and private schools in the country. Drugs are in the culture, and to say that it's a "Graham problem" is naive at best. Ask the administrators of any of those schools for an HONEST answer, and you'll find that out. Again -- in 6 years, my kids have not seen any evidence of drugs, have not seen anyone high, have not been approached about drugs, etc.

And I'm sure if the police arrested kids on drug charges it would have been in the police logs in the Voice, even if not in an article. You should go back in the archives and find it if you know for sure it happened, they list every time the cops get called out or make an arrest, as far as I know.

And who the heck is saying that test scores for every group are the same? No one from the school district, for sure, Steve, so where the heck did that snarky comment come from?

@huh: "'Zero coverage of youth sports, performing arts, academic achievements, high school graduations, etc.'
Not true, eric. Once again you focus more on attacking other posters than commenting on the story. The story and comments have merit, even if you don't think so"

I agree with eric on this one. One complaint I have with the Voice is that they do not cover a lot of the great things happening in the schools. Like the fact that Graham's Choir has taken first place at the Heritage Music Festival in Anaheim three years in a row, and the band and strings have placed in the top two or three in their categories as well. Last year Graham swept the awards for the middle school category, it was incredible. They came home with a pile of trophies. You'd think someone at the Voice might want to put in a mention of it? No. The dance team also won first place this year. I emailed the "extr@credit" email address at the Voice to see if they would put in a mention, and nothing happened.

Or that the school's Destination Imagination team were State Champions and went to the National competition. Seems like that would be worth some coverage. Nada.

I know the Voice doesn't cover school sports (though I don't really know why), but they really seem to ignore any good stories about the schools, and just report the controversial stuff.

Can't Landels get some press coverage for the fight that happened on their campus that very same afternoon? Are gangs moving into elementary schools now?

@yet another parent: The Landels fight had nothing to do with gangs. In fact, there is nothing in any of the information we know that says the Graham fight had anything to do with gangs, either. Everyone jumps to conclusions that anything that happens is gang-related. Kids fight sometimes. Not a good thing, for sure, but it happens.

The Landels thing was a personal thing between two kids, from what I heard from a Landels parent.

Too bad intelligence isn't a requirement to remain in the USA. We'd have a lot of people to deport here if it was...(mainly US born citizens!)

Deporting people is really the only answer! Let's just deport everyone until every problem goes away. Right?

Heck, they didn't go from calling us the "Melting Pot" to the "Straining Pot" for nothing!

Gangs?... in Mountain View... Nah!

@le dude: You notice that I didn't say "there are no gangs in Mountain View." What I said was, there is nothing to indicate that either the fight at Graham or the one at Landels had anything to do with gangs, and that people always automatically jump to the conclusion that any problem at all is gang-related. Perhaps you can read the posts carefully before you reply.

Gangs?... at Graham or Landels... Nah!

le dude -- just give it up. You obviously have nothing pertinent to add to the discussion.