School, law enforcement officials meet with members of Indian colony

School and law enforcement officials called their meeting with the Carson Indian Colony on Wednesday night a success.

"It went very well and was very productive," said Chief Deputy Steve Schuette. "We had the opportunity to explain some of our procedures and the role of the officers at the school."

The meeting stemmed from a Sept. 4 fight between two students at Carson High School.

Both students were taken to the dean's office, and one was arrested.

Members of the crowd supporting the fight were identified and also brought into the dean's office, where their names were recorded on field interrogation cards by a campus officer.

Parents protested at last week's school board meeting, fearing the cards had identified their children as gang members.

Schuette returned the cards to parents during the meeting.

"All those cards were used for was basically scratch paper to write down who was involved," he said in a telephone interview after the meeting. "It was really generic information that was taken out of context as to what the cards meant and what they were used for."

The meeting, held at the colony's gym, was not open to the media. A phone call to the colony representative after the meeting was not immediately returned.

Carson City School Superintendent Mary Pierczynski said about 75 people attended.

She said she hopes it opens further dialogue with the American Indian community.

"I hope that we can get more involved with them so we can bring up their students' academic abilities like we want to do with all students," she said. "We don't want to leave any child behind."