King High student arrested after employee is assaulted

A student at Martin Luther King Jr. High in Riverside was arrested Wednesday after authorities said he assaulted a campus supervisor who was attempting to break up a fight.

The employee, who was identified by his daughter as Steve Paulos, was punched several times in the head and kicked. Jenny Paulos said he was taken to a hospital. He was sore but recovering at home Wednesday night, she said.

There were two fights at King on Wednesday involving two sets of female students, said Diana Meza, a spokeswoman for the Riverside Unified School District. During the second, around noon, Paulos intervened as students encircled the fighters. Some of them filmed the fight. One video of the altercation shows Paulos being knocked down and a male student swinging both fists at Paulos as he lay on the ground.

The melee was then broken up.

The student, who was not identified because he is a minor, was booked into Riverside County Juvenile Hall on suspicion of assault, said Officer Ryan Railsback, a spokesman for the Riverside

Police Department.

“It was completely unwarranted, unprovoked on a staff member that was there to help. We hope the student will understand the seriousness of the actions,” Railsback said.

He added that Riverside police will place officers on the King High campus for the remainder of this week “to make sure that things calm down.”

Meza said most campus fights are planned rather than happening on impulse. Administrators ask students to alert staff of impending fights rather than watch and film them, she said.

“There are consequences. People can get seriously hurt,” Meza said, noting Diego Stolz, a Moreno Valley middle school student who died when he hit his head on a concrete pillar after being punched in 2019.

Staff Writer David Downey contributed to this report.