Photo by AlbinoFlea.

The District’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services — which has had about as bad a year as you could possibly imagine — held an awards ceremony last Thursday night at the Wilson Building to honor the agency’s “most successfully rehabilitated offenders.”

Then a brawl broke out. I swear, you can’t even make this stuff up.

Scott McCabe reports on the melee in the Examiner:

“One of the girls got a glazed look in her eyes, and it was on,” said one witness who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.

Chairs and fists started flying, witnesses said.

Administration officials and security quickly moved in to stop the Thursday night fray, but the melee continued for several minutes, witnesses said. Police backup and D.C. fire and rescue workers were called to the Wilson Building to help quell the violence and take care of an injured person.

Grace Ebiasah, 18, Anna Ebiasah, 20, and Deanna Morris, 19 were all arrested for fighting in a public place. But it’s just another headache for Mayor Fenty, who has been struggling to answer questions about the performance of DYRS during most of his campaign for reelection. The Mayor — who was in attendance at the ceremony — recently canned interim DRYS director Marc A. Schindler and replaced him with former Deputy Attorney General Robert Hildum; Hildum’s appointment was quickly tainted by claims that he lacks the appropriate independence from the District Attorney’s office to lead the agency.

In 2010 alone, 16 youth under the supervision of DYRS have either been killed or charged with murder.