Why are so many kids fighting in school? Social media, policy changes are factors, experts say
HAVERHILL - Video on Snapchat from inside Haverhill High School on Monday shows two students in a brawl. Then teachers and staff step in to break it up. "Today we had an altercation that involved two groups of students," an email from the school read. "As a result of this altercation, some students will be disciplined accordingly."
Parents and kids tell WBZ this is not a unique situation. "Well, there's fights here almost every day, both girls and boys," said parent John Johnson.
Impact of school fights on teachers
Other school districts are facing similar issues. Last month, two students in Framingham were arrested after a brawl during lunch. In Brockton, school violence had teachers in tears during a public school committee meeting.
"Sadly, this year has killed me," said Brockton High teacher Julie Fairfield through tears. "I have this last month been one of those teachers that has called out probably twice a week."
Why so many school fights?
Why are kids getting into regular fistfights in the cafeteria and halls? School safety experts hypothesize a variety of factors: return to in-person learning post-pandemic, a policy shift away from suspensions, and social media.
"We don't want to exclude students from school," explained Dr. Justin Baeder of the Principal Center. "It's difficult on families. It's difficult on students because they fall behind on their learning. So as educators, we very much want to have students in schools...but it really became apparent to me that this was a whole new ball game that we're dealing with levels of violence against teachers and certainly violence against students as well. That is really just unprecedented and is the result of policy decisions that we've made."
Changing discipline for school fights
Baeder believes schools need to reinstate or re-up progressive discipline to combat the issue. "We're not talking about zero tolerance," he said. "We're talking about small consequences for low-level behaviors, and only increasing the severity of those consequences if the behavior or the frequency of the behavior increases."
The social media factor
In addition, social media use is a huge factor, as many students video these fights instead of intervening. "Please ban the use of cell phones at Brockton High School for the students," said teacher Mark Richardson at the school committee meeting last week. "When there's a fight, instead of helping, students impede adults' ability to break it up by taking out their phones."
It's true - experts agree that social media has added fuel to the fire. "It only adds to the challenges that school administrators have had in dealing with an already high level of anxiety, ambiguity, and certainty around school safety," explained school safety expert Dr. Kenneth Trump.
"I think when it comes to fights in particular, social media creates an incentive for young people to engage in fights, to organize fights, to film fights, because there will be attention," added Baeder.
Brockton has a school committee meeting on Tuesday where the cell phone policy will be discussed. Framingham has a city council meeting where the Superintendent will present on school safety.