{"id":148578,"date":"2026-03-26T00:29:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T00:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/148578\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T00:29:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T00:29:26","slug":"flyers-about-downtown-takeover-prompt-warning-from-pittsburgh-public-schools-after-big-brawl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/148578\/","title":{"rendered":"Flyers about &#8220;downtown takeover&#8221; prompt warning from Pittsburgh Public Schools after big brawl"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Days after kids got into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/pittsburgh\/news\/pittsburgh-police-large-fight-market-square\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a major brawl<\/a>\u00a0in Downtown Pittsburgh, some school leaders are reacting, trying to get ahead of more potential activity this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh Public Schools left a voice message for families Tuesday night, informing them about a flyer circulating on social media of a &#8220;downtown takeover&#8221; on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This event is not sanctioned, not supervised, and poses a serious safety concern for our students. We urge all families to discourage their children from attending,&#8221; part of Pittsburgh Public Schools&#8217; message said.<\/p>\n<p>The location is unclear, but it&#8217;s scheduled for less than one week after a large brawl at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/pittsburgh\/news\/juveniles-fight-pittsburgh-charges-police-update\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-absolute=\"true\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Market Square<\/a>, a place Pittsburgh Public Safety said has become a hub for kids and teens to gather, and where a fight early Sunday evening resulted in seven minors cited for disorderly conduct, and around 20 treated for exposure to pepper spray.<\/p>\n<p>Jen Grippo, owner of Original Oyster House, said they were closed at the time. However, Grippo said they remain in close contact with their neighboring businesses about any activity.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was certainly disappointing,&#8221; Grippo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Grippo said she and Kathy Marsico, the operations manager at Nicholas Coffee and Tea Co., were already aware of the potential event on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a crazy world right now,&#8221; Marsico said. &#8220;It&#8217;s a cultural, social, kind of environment where the kids are very, you know, just attracted to that type of behavior.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Marsico said police are urging all shops that don&#8217;t have cameras to put them up and to provide them with access to assist in these situations. She also said they work with an outreach team called AIM.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re trying to make sure that the kids act responsibly and don&#8217;t take part in those types of events,&#8221; Marsico said.<\/p>\n<p>Between these efforts and the PPS voicemail, businesses are encouraged by the proactive measures, but do feel more long-term solutions are needed, something the Pittsburgh Public Safety director said is in the works, as police confirmed to KDKA they&#8217;re monitoring the potential gathering that&#8217;s days away.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We just want to make sure that even if the kids do come Downtown, you&#8217;re being safe, you&#8217;re being respectful, and you&#8217;re not going to cause a ruckus,&#8221; Grippo said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Days after kids got into a major brawl\u00a0in Downtown Pittsburgh, some school leaders are reacting, trying to get&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74,940],"class_list":{"0":"post-148578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-pittsburgh","9":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","10":"tag-pittsburgh-news","11":"tag-pittsburgh-public-schools"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}