When you average over 4300 students a year, there are going to be times students don’t get along and from time to time it gets physical. When I first started this particular topic was something that I was worried about and had plenty of questions about. I asked my peers and bosses about what I can and should not do. The answers ranged from we have to keep every student and staff safe to separate the students and call for help. In some of the areas throughout the school you are alone. Your radio is your friend!
My First Fight:
I was in one of the isolated buildings during a passing period, when I noticed a lot of commotion in the hallway by the boy’s bathroom. I rushed through the crowd and got the bathroom. Noticed that a couple of students were holding the door. I slammed my way into the bathroom, both students that we holding the door raced out of the bathroom quickly. I noticed quickly one student had another pinned and was about to throw a punch. I acted by grabbing his arm to stop the punch and push the student off of the other one. Once I got them separated. I called for assistance, but everything was done. The aggressor’s heart was racing, and I was ensuring that he was calming down. The other student I had stand on the other side of the bathroom and dust himself off. Once my assistance got there – we walked them to the nurse’s office to ensure that no one was hurt. On the way, I did some investigating as to why it happened. Both young men were opened to answer my questions. Once we got to the nurse’s office both young men had calmed down and shook hands. I took them to their administrator’s and wrote my statement of what I saw, hear and did. When punches are thrown – it is mandatory seven-day suspension for the students.
When this was completely over, I remembered back to my days of high school and the bathroom was always the best spot for any activity that you did not want anyone to see. My position in that isolated building was not near the bathroom. Moving my location – would leave the whole building open. So, I requested some mirrors for the building to insure that from my location – I could see down every hallway.
My First Female Fight:
Within weeks of my first male fight, I was the first on the scene of my first female fight. This was during lunch time and all students were moving back to their classrooms when a fight broke out by the vending machines. Because of the location and all of the students being in the hallway – there was quite the crowd. I decided to take the shortest route to the fight. I pushed my way through the crowd until I got to the fight. It was two girls that we are doing plenty of hair pulling. I grab the shoulders of one of the girls to separate her from the other. Well, that went poorly as she just backed up and picked my feet up off the floor. We all went to the floor! I was on the floor trying to get them to stop. I had to force hands open to release hair. Once I got hands open and hair removed, my assistance arrived and was with each of the girls. I stood up to just see two different girls get into a fight themselves. I jumped in-between them and grab the aggressor by the wrists and walked her away from the area. The first two went to the nurse’s office (the hair pulling was bad) and the other two went directly to their administers (no punches thrown – yet).
I went to my boss to watch the video of the situation to see what I could do better in the future. His comment to me was very telling. I attempted to take it easy with the first fight and that got me on the floor. He said that my actions with the second fight was the way to handle all fights – grab the arms and walk them away from the situation. The other security was handling the second person. So, I messed up the first one, but by the time that was over – my mind already made the corrections moving forward. I can safely say that the girl’s fights were the most challenging for me.
Thoughts:
Over my three-year career, I have witnessed more girl fights that boy fights. Not just by a few, but by a double digit more. What I found out from talking to the combatant’s – the girl fights come from years of grudges and others talking (or social media) each other. The boy fights were quick over fresh stuff. He said, he said or did.
Something that I was very proud of was observing what was happening. Watching the students in the hallway or cafe – you see stuff that could potentially go south. I would insert myself to the group or the two individuals and stand there. If I heard that something was about to be started, I would pick one of them to step away and follow me. Taking them out of the situation at the time, cools the air. Then I would take one of them to their administer to let them know what had happen. The administer would get ahold of the second person and would make it clear that nothing should happen at school (or off campus near school). Punishment would clear and swift. 9 out of 10 times that was enough to stop it from happening further.
I know it is easy for us raising kids that we want them to defend themselves. Problem is almost all fights are over stupid stuff. I know that it gets brought into school – where there are lots of people around. Saving face and keeping an image up is important. Sometimes fighting is the last resort. Most of what I observed were the first or second resort. Stuff that could be handled differently and just as effective as throwing down fists. I have seen students that have lost their sports because of that one simple mistake. Some students have much more to lose than others. I hated it when that mistake costs much more than just a suspension from school.
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