Fights at school are a common problem. In the month of August alone, there had been 7 fights and there were even 2 fights at homecoming. These fights do not resolve anything and actually make things worse.

Mrs. Lenter has been teaching for around 16 years and has seen 50 fights, so she has strong opinions about the subject.

“It’s ridiculous. It solves nothing. They get broken up so fast, if you actually wanted to fight why are you doing it in school? It’s literally just for show these days.”

Being involved in any way in a fight is just not ideal for anyone also.

“I do know people getting in trouble that were there holding the books or clearing the way or getting the video set up, they’re all getting it.”

Mrs.Adams, who is a dean here, had some more information to bring on punishments for being involved in fights in any way.

“All of the student’s who are involved in the physical aspect of the fight get in trouble. We usually do 5 days out of school suspension for anybody who is fighting. But anybody who is involved in recording fights we can do out of suspensions for that as well.”

Fighting also gives off the impression of immaturity.

“The people who fight, especially the silly little freshmen and sophomores, usually grow out of it by senior year because they realize: ‘I’m gonna go to jail for this’.”

Mrs.Adams then added to this point of criminal charges.

“Actually anybody who’s in high school can get charges pressed against them, it would just be depending on if they’re under 18, it would be a juvenile charge, and if it is 18 or above, then it would be an adult charge and those consequences can carry with them for a very long time. For example, if it’s somebody who is 18 fighting, then having that on their record may impede them from getting into college, or getting a good job or things like that.”

Fights at school really aren’t worth charges, Mrs. Lenter says.

“That’s why you don’t really see a lot of senior fights because a lot of them are 18 or close enough to being 18 so they know that if they get into a fight, especially with a younger person, they can be charged as an adult.”

“The best thing to do is just ignore them, that drives people nuts”

There are also other resources that are available to students instead of fighting.

“If you find yourself where someone’s constantly picking at you, let a teacher know, let your dean know, we got the deans, we got Councillor, we got the 2 social workers that are full time, now which is great. There’s people that are gonna help, I know people who have gone like ‘this person won’t leave me alone’ and we can look it up.”

Mrs.Adams backs up this point further.

“Adults here in the building, whether its a dean, a social worker, a counselor, an administrator, or a teacher and other adults in the building, those individuals have resources and can help them(students) resolve the conflict without getting into a fight.”

“Mrs.Morris and Ms.Lee are very helpful at giving strategies for dealing with situations where you’re feeling escalated. The Deans, even though we typically see students who are in trouble, we can also help try to resolve some of those conflicts before they turn into fights.”

For Online bullying, Mrs.Lenter also has a simple solution.

“Now if they’re being like harassing you with nasty posts? Screenshot, get them in trouble, it’s not that hard.”

Fighting also just makes the school look bad.

“People in the community think of Anderson high school as not a great school because of the fights but in reality, it really is a good school.”

And Mrs.Lenter has experienced how people outside of the school view Anderson.

“It gives Anderson such a bad rep. When I first started working here, People were like:‘are you afraid to go there?’ No? Because it’s the same group that’s constantly fighting, it’s the same group of girls, the same group of guys, it’s the same cliques, it’s the same small group, the rest of the people, the rest of the probably 1500(Maybe) don’t care, aren’t fighting. So culture-wise, it just gives us a bad rap because there are few people who just want to be dumb about things.”

In conclusion, Fights at school and school events do more harm than good for you and it is best to find a way to solve any conflict you’re facing by either ignoring it or asking an adult for help in resolving it.