Fighting on Campus

Fighting on  campus is always a problem no matter what school you attend, but they are most common in high schools, due to students feeling as though it’s a better solution than talking out a conflict.. Here at Taft, causing fights can result in a severe punishment such as suspension or even expulsion. In other schools it may not be handled as well. There are even some instances where the police can get involved and anyone participating in the fight could be pressed with criminal charges such as Violence or Disturbance of peace. Even with these systems in place, why do fights happen, how do schools without a zero tolerance system treat fighting and bullying? How can all fights be resolved in school and prevent conflict and violence. To figure this out we have to look at conflict, why  they start, and if we stop a fight can we stop conflict so the fight doesn’t happen again or even happen at all??

Fights at school most often happen for one reason: conflict. Conflict between two students could be anything from a disagreement to full on bullying. Steps to stop bullying have already been taken in multiple schools including Taft,  bullying can lead to severe punishment, and a rehabilitation between the victim and the attacker called a restorative justice circle, where they discuss the conflict and how to resolve it. This is pretty effective in most schools, but with this policy there are still conflicts where both people agree to an attack. This could be gang related, a disagreement, anger or many other reasons can cause a fight. When fights start they are stopped my administrators and enforcement, But how can we stops from even starting so no one gets hurt.

Conflict can include disagreements and in severe cases gang violence. It can include just fists or weapons, There is already education on fighting conflicts in most schools (mostly in health class) but is this enough what else could we do to solve these problems? Well we need to look at what is causing the problem there are multiple reasons fights happen on campus. Most problems often span from small disagreements, For example let’s say one student feels as if another student has wronged them, At first it can be things such as cat calling, online arguments ect but if no intervention happens it can possibly lead to physical conflict and it worse situations weapon violence that can injure or in severe cases kill a student. If authority do not see the conflict they cannot do anything, even if nothing can be changed maybe students need more education on confrontational skills. This may be effective, According to multiple studies in behavior of students, Students do not know how to react to these situations so it may lead into violence. If we teach students confrontational skills this may be the answer to solving the current problems with fights starting.

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