Let police sort out the facts in fight involving Skyline High School students

We do not pretend to know exactly what occurred when an argument involving two or more high school students on a bus escalated into violence after they were dropped off.

That’s for Ann Arbor police to sort out, and they’re looking into it. Their investigation can not only bring out the facts, but also provide a cooling-off period for an incident that - while indeed serious - may prove less alarming than the over-heated reaction that followed.

The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a press release after the incident saying that the fight was started by ethnic insults against a 16-year-old girl who suffered cuts and had her Islamic headscarf pulled off. It has asked for the incident to be investigated as a hate crime.

Reports of the incident also led to strident conversation on the Web site of AnnArbor.com, and left some parents concerned for the safety of their children in school and asking whether the Ann Arbor school system is doing enough to encourage tolerance and deal with ethnic and racial tension.

It would be a mistake to under-react to a fight that reportedly involved five to seven students of different races and ethnicities, and that left one girl injured. But over-reaction is not the answer either.

We share the sentiment of Richard Kinsey, the retired Ann Arbor police detective who now writes a blog for AnnArbor.com and urged the community to “take a step back’’ and let authorities complete their investigation.

This may have been a dispute between two or more students that boiled over into more. It may have been a bullying incident. It may have had racial overtones, or it may be that ethnic insults were uttered in anger, but the fight was precipitated by something else.

One thing that does seem clear in retrospect is that this was not a school-related incident, although the students involved attend Skyline High School. The school district has taken disciplinary action against the students and is offering conflict mediation. Those actions are appropriate, but this does not look like a case where the school could have prevented the incident, or that the school environment is unsafe.

We also encourage the community not to second-guess the actions of the bus driver, who thought the dispute had been quelled before the students involved were let off the bus. Throwing blame in every direction is not what’s needed here.

From what we’ve seen so far, this incident has been taken seriously by the schools and by police. When all the facts are known, it will be clear what the appropriate response is.

In the meantime, it’s best to simmer down, and reserve judgment. We’re concerned, and the community is concerned, but it’s time to let cooler heads prevail here.