Recently, you might have noticed there have been a bunch of fights between students. Even after sixth period, there have been instances where almost half of the school run near the blacktop.
Obviously, students getting into physical fights will come with consequences, but it’s worse for eighth graders because they are getting promoted soon, along with more end-of-year activities like the eighth-grade promotion dance and the Sunsplash field trip.
After Ms. Pallas was interviewed to get her opinion on the current situation. She said, “The main triggers for the fights that have been happening seem to be students saying things they shouldn’t be saying about other people, misunderstandings, and a lot of girls and guys stuff that’s going on.”
When asked for her opinion on what could be done to improve the situation and prevent fights in the future, she explained, “I think there needs to be a lot more conflict resolution before they get to that point. Some people don’t wanna feel like they are being ‘snitches’ as they say, so they choose not to say anything and just let them get into a fight.”
There has already been an email Ms. Fernandez sent out to parents, where she brought up how there has been a big “uptick in student behaviors, particularly the encouragement of physical altercations.” She also said that recording and sharing the videos of these fights will end up in students facing consequences, “which range from detentions to suspensions.”
As said before, there are a bunch of end-of-year events for all grade levels and Fernandez also said that “students who engage in inappropriate behaviors risk losing these privileges.”
Besides the email that was sent out to students’ parents, Fernandez was interviewed to get more of an inside look at the extra precautions the school is taking. She explained, “We do different education pieces for students. We have done conflict mediation between students who have concerns with one another before it leads to a physical altercation. We encourage students to report concerns and not be bystanders or students who are instigating the fight. There can be consequences for those involved, not just the students in the fight. We have also increased campus supervision.”
Students filming will also lead to consequences but also those that get access to it and post to social media will have consequences. LPD also gets involved depending on the severity and there could be formal legal charges
Fernandez explained the conflict meditation solution a bit better and said, “We do conflict mediation to try to help students talk through and sort out their problems. This is generally facilitated by the counselor and admin is there to support. We also have students on no-contact contracts.”
Overall, there are options that students have besides getting into physical fights, like conflict mediation, no-contact contracts, or literally just talking it out. These are way better for students especially when it’s getting towards the end of the year and there are a lot of fun activities that GEMS offers.