LAUSD student fights, threats surge 21% and 11.5% despite safety efforts

The Los Angeles Unified School District is confronting a troubling reality: despite years of safety initiatives, the number of student fights and threats has climbed sharply. In the 2025-2026 school year, the district recorded 6,131 fights—a 21 percent increase from four years earlier—and 4,015 threats, up 11.5 percent since the 2022-2023 school year. The data, presented to the school board in late September, arrived amid heightened scrutiny following the death of 17-year-old Xavier Nungaray at Franklin High School, forcing district officials and safety experts to reckon with the gap between their stated priorities and measurable outcomes.

School safety researchers who reviewed the numbers expressed alarm. Ronald Stephens, executive director of the National School Safety Center and professor emeritus at Pepperdine University, called the figures "very concerning" and warned that the district faces potential legal exposure if serious incidents occur without documented preventive action. From a litigation perspective, Stephens explained, the critical questions will be what the district knew about fighting and aggression, when it learned of these problems, and what concrete steps it took in response. He noted that while LAUSD maintains a formal safe school plan, the rising statistics suggest that plan is insufficient and requires enhancement through better supervision, staff training, and targeted intervention for at-risk students.

Monica Harmon, executive director of Speak Out Against Bullying Inc., pinpointed what she sees as a fundamental enforcement failure. Speaking after an anti-bullying assembly at an elementary school, she argued that students face minimal consequences for violent or threatening behavior. "There's no consequences," Harmon said. "So many kids get in trouble, the students report it, and then they're back in school the next day. They're not suspended. There need to be tougher restrictions." Her observation reflects a broader concern among safety advocates: that without meaningful accountability, prevention messages lose their force.

The data does show progress in some areas. Weapons-related incidents fell 38 percent over the same four-year span, dropping to 923 last school year. Reported incidents of students at suicide risk—the district's term for students expressing suicidal ideation—declined 14 percent to 10,055 cases, though this category remains the most persistent safety challenge LAUSD has faced over the past five years. Still, the rise in fights and threats has overshadowed these gains and raised questions about whether existing programs are reaching students before conflict escalates.

Los Angeles Police Department Captain Eric Eppolito announced that his agency is intensifying school outreach this year, aiming to intervene early in student conflicts before they spiral into serious incidents. "When you talk about bullying, that can lead to a lot of things, from minor to something really serious," Eppolito said, noting that as students age, the problems compound. The LAPD has not maintained a regular presence in LA public schools over the past five years, making this renewed focus a shift in approach. Eppolito emphasized that teaching students to resolve disputes through communication, rather than violence, is foundational to prevention work.

Harmon connected the statistics to the immediate tragedy at Franklin High School, where students witnessed Nungaray's death but did not intervene. She called for a cultural shift in which students feel empowered to speak up rather than remain silent bystanders. "What I'm seeing on social media, like what happened to the student at Franklin High School, there were students standing around watching, recording," she said. "It would have taken one or two students to save that little boy if they stepped up." Her anti-bullying assemblies conclude with students pledging to report incidents rather than ignore them—a modest intervention aimed at changing the social dynamics that allow violence to occur.

The district responded to the data release with a statement emphasizing its commitment to prevention and support. LAUSD highlighted its use of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports and Restorative Practices, programs designed to establish clear behavioral expectations, strengthen relationships, address conflict, and hold students accountable while repairing harm. The district also noted ongoing training for staff and families on mental health resources and the creation of safe school environments, along with partnerships aimed at violence prevention and intervention. Yet Stephens suggested the district needs to go further, recommending it consult directly with students, parents, and teachers to develop more effective protocols. "Most of this work in keeping schools safe is not about rocket science," he said. "It's about having a physical presence and a care for students." The question now is whether LAUSD will treat these rising numbers as a call to fundamentally rethink its approach or as a problem to be managed within existing frameworks.