MADISON, Wis. -- More than 300 people turned out Tuesday night for a public meeting addressing growing violence at Madison Memorial High School.

Memorial Parents Sound Off On Recent School Violence

Madison Memorial's principal says recent violence is cause for great concern.

On Tuesday night, parents, school staff and police met to discuss, among other things, increased gang activity and the possibility of metal detectors.

Parents wanted to know how the weapons are getting into school and what the school can do to stop it.

Those leading the meeting say what is happening at Memorial is really a microcosm of what's taking place throughout the Madison community.

Police and staff are increasing their vigilance following the latest violence.

Monday morning a staff member was hit in the face after asking a student to remove a hat. As many as five fights broke out in a hallway and another student threatened a teacher.

There have been six incidents of violence at the school in the past week.

"It's pretty obvious that there is some gang issues related to what happened at school yesterday," said Lt. Tony Peterson.

Peterson said there have now been 40 arrests and citations at Memorial this school year.

Following a freedom of information request, the district released surveillance tape to News 3 showing a student waving a knife following an open gym night. Later, two others got into a fight.

Weapons, including a box cutter and a 9 mm handgun have also been seized from Memorial students.

Principal Dahmen admitted there are no easy solutions but said the district is being proactive in calling the police when needed, having teachers and staff in the hallways and dealing with the gang problem.

Although no specific plan was layed out parents are relieved the issue is getting attention.

"My most concern is that the school is taking steps to protect the kids and that the kids get help that are having issues," said parent Suzanne Wolf.

Wolf's three children attend Memorial.

"The incidents that have occurred at Memorial High School are not related," said assistant superintendent Pam Nash. "They unfortunately fell in a very short period of time and I think that causes great unease."

In his letter inviting families to the meeting, principal Bruce Dahmen writes, "As you probably are now aware, we have had several incidents over the past two weeks that cause us great concern. Our goal is to maintain a safe educational environment."

Lt. Peterson says most of the trouble is coming from the freshmen class.

"So we're hypothesizing that we've got a bunch of individuals new to the school who need to be educated as to what is appropriate behavior, at a minimum. Or (they) need to realize there is no place in schools for violence or for weapons."

Principal Dahmen will address the freshman class next week then move on to the sophomore, junior and senior classes.

"There are 2,200 kids at Memorial," said Nash. "2,150 are going about their business doing the right thing every single day. That's very difficult and very painful."

Nash said the district is willing to consider metal detectors and enforcement dogs, but not ready to embrace them at this point because it would be a dramatic change in the entire feel of the educational setting.