'These are not South Pasadena Kids,' Police Say of Skateboarders in Video

The person seen fighting with a South Pasadena Middle School custodian in a video that is only intermittently available for public viewing "appears to be an adult,'' authorities said Thursday. 

South Pasadena Police have identified all the kids in the video from Tuesday afternoon's scuffle between the janitor and a skateboarder, said Det. Sgt. Robert Bartl. And they're not South Pasadena kids, he added.

The SPMS janitor was asking a group of skateboarders to leave campus, as anyone on school grounds without a school-sanctioned reason to be there is trespssing, Superintendent Joel Shapiro said Wednesday. And skatebaording is never allowed at any South Pasadena Unified School District building, per municipal ordinance. Still, the schools, particularly SPMS, see a reoccurring problem with skateboarders and vandalism, Shapiro said Wednesday.

At about 3 p.m. on Tuesday, someone in the group of skateboarders filmed an exchange between the janitor and one young man, with the video showing the skateboarders cursing and a visibly angry custodian pushing the young man. The exchange turned into a scuffle and the young man eventually backed the janitor into some hedges.

Throughout Wednesday, as the video viewership increased, the ability to publicly view the video  switched back and forth to a private setting. As of this posting, it was again set to "private.'' Neither the police nor Shapiro requested the video be made private, Bartl and Shapiro said Wednesday. Additionally, as of Wednesday afternoon, Shapiro said he had not seen the video, he'd only heard about it.

"It appears at this point that the kid fighting with the janitor is an adult, not a juvenile,'' Bartl said. "We are interviewing [the kids in the video] at this point and gathering more facts as to what occurred.'' 

No arrests have been made, Bartl added. 

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