THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 18, 1995 TAG: 9503180230
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
An eighth-grader died Friday morning after he suffered a blow to the head and went into convulsions during a fight with a classmate in the school cafeteria.
It is the second time in less than two years that a Hampton student has died during an in-school fight.
Jason Windley, 15, was pronounced dead at Sentara Hampton General Hospital at 11:52 a.m., less than an hour after he fought with a 14-year-old while the two were on lunch break at C. Vernon Spratley Middle School on Woodland Road.
``While the victim was falling to the floor he struck his head on a piece of furniture, possibly a chair,'' said Donnie Moore, spokesman for the Hampton Police Department.
Terrified students watched as Windley lost consciousness and began having seizures.
School officials and paramedics administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation and then electric shock in an unsuccessful attempt to restart Windley's heart.
Witnesses said that a hall monitor and a janitor were nearby when the fight started, but they were unable to separate the two boys before the fatal injury occurred. The other boy, whose name was withheld because of his age, was treated at the hospital.
No one had a good explanation for why the fight started. One witness said the two boys had traded insults during the lunch break.
School officials defended security at the school.
``It was just one of those incidents that flare up,'' explained Jerry Sandford, director of publications and information for the Hampton schools. ``As to what caused it, I do not know.''
Because of the tragedy, students were sent home about two hours early, at 1:30 p.m., Sandford said.
Moore, the Hampton police spokesman, would not say whether the other boy in the fight, also an eighth-grader, was in custody or if he will be charged. He said an autopsy is being performed and the results will be used during the police investigation into Windley's death.
On Oct. 18, 1993, less than a mile from Spratley Middle School, Javal Allen was stabbed to death during a fight with another student at Hampton's Kecoughtan High School. That fight also started in the cafeteria before spilling into the school parking lot, where Allen was fatally stabbed in the neck. Samuel Anderson, 15, was convicted of murder last March. ILLUSTRATION: Jason Windley, 15, struck his head as he fell during a fight
Friday morning and went into convulsions.
KEYWORDS: JUVENILE FATALITY FIGHT by CNB