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Home > What Have You Done to Stop Fights in School?

What Have You Done to Stop Fights in School?

February 21, 2012
Topics: School Discipline;

When I was in school, anytime a fight broke out, all the students in the vicinity would run over to watch, sometimes chanting "Fight! Fight! Fight!" Fights were almost always regarded as entertainment for the masses. If someone tried to break them up, that person was usually told to back off and let them go at it.

Inevitably a teacher would show up and drag the kids to the office, and we would all walk away grumbling that it hadn't lasted longer. That was the standard for ordinary fights.

I remember one occasion in which a student brought a gun to school the day after a fight we had all cheered for. All of a sudden the fight and the cheering took on a completely different tone. I was personally ashamed of myself for egging on a fight, and we were all very scared. For several months we didn't have any fights at our school, and if two kids started shouting at each other, we would break them up.

After a while though, everybody forgot about the kid with the gun. He had been sent off to a school for disturbed kids and nobody ever heard from him again. By the next school year we were back to the same old thing.

A fight requires at least two people. Breaking up a fight usually only takes one person. My guess is your school is the same as mine, with a big crowd of kids standing around watching. What if you stepped in and broke them up? What would happen? Would you be scorned and told to get out of the way? Probably. But what if you refused to budge, and insisted on stopping the fight? What is the worst thing that could happen to you? A bunch of your classmates roll their eyes at you?

How about bullies? How many bullies are there in a given classroom? One? How many victims are there? How many silent witnesses watch it happen without doing anything about it? What would it take for you step in? Why don't you?

Do you have a strategy for dealing with bullies and fights? Do you avoid them? Do you cheer for them? What could you do differently to change the culture at your school?

The site moderator will review all comments before posting. The best commenter for the month of February will win a $200 cash prize. Comments containing offensive language, personal attacks, or SPAM will be rejected. All posted comments become property of EBSCO Publishing and may appear with related content on the Points of View Reference Center interface. Students must enter a valid email address to be eligible for the monthly prize.



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#1 from Shane Kramer on February 28, 2012 at 12:11 pm

Everytime in school when fights break out I follow a three step proccess for stopping them. One assess the problem, two alert a teacher, and three stop any harm from happening. This proccess is very useful and effective. Stopping bullying is the first step to stopping fighting.

#2 from Fabian on March 04, 2012 at 10:10 am

In my opinion, the article hits the nail on the head with its description of a school fight's course. But I wouldn't criticize only the observers of such a scrap when the topic is to discuss how to intervene in such brawls more effectively. If a student tries to break it up he will readily become the scapegoat, sometimes not only for the observers but also for the combatants. When I remind of my primary school time, where such playground scraps occur most often in general as opposed to the upper schools, I used to alert the playground supervision unnoticeable if there was a fight between classmates whereby I had the impression that the pupils concerned weren't able to solve their clash fairly. So one teacher came and made them stop fighting without somebody knowing that I sent he or she to them. Thereby I have to say that I wasn't someone who was thought of as the best friend of all my school fellows. Therfore I didn't want to risk that I became the loser who gets labeled as the "kill-joy". Maybe some people think that this reaction is coward but I think it's still better than spuring on the fight or let it go at it. I also think that teachers can contribute to moral courage on behalf of the onlookers if teachers make time for punishing those pupils who only fuel the brawl. But I realize the problem that occurs when teachers intervene in a student's fight. They are often occupied in seperating the fighters that in the meanwhile the feigned non-participants can disappear. So maybe teachers should shield that no one leaves the "combat zone" until the scrap is broken up and the conflict is solved, but that requires that more than one teacher come to intervene in a pupils fight.

#3 from Dipika on March 13, 2012 at 12:40 pm

My son started high shcool last week and he is pysched, my daughter will start next week after taking sometime off of public shcool to be homeshcooled, she is ecstatic to be with her friends again, and the little one well she has 2 more years at home with mommy but we are looking forward to some us time . hopefully with some new megablocks to play with LOL

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*The site moderator will review all comments before posting. Comments containing offensive language, personal attacks, or SPAM will be rejected. All posted comments become property of EBSCO Publishing and may appear with related content on the Points of View Reference Center interface. Students must be 13 or older and enter a valid email address to be eligible for the monthly prize.