Fighting in high school

BrightSera said:

How would a teacher handle it?

They personally witness one person hit another person, but have no idea of what led up to it. The other person does not have time to react and doesn't hit them back before the teacher intervenes.

Does the teacher take the person who threw a punch to the office to the principal? Does he or she take both people to the office? Does the teacher try to sort out what happened before going to the office? Do they contact the school-based police officer before doing anything?

It doesn't need to be extremely detailed, I just need a general idea.

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Depends on the school.

In my school, there was no school-based police officer, or any security personnel at all.

Had a teacher seen a student hit another (I assume you mean like hit hit not like a smack that could be interpreted in different ways), you probably would've heard the teacher two states away, before the teacher grabbed the perpetrator and told him or her to get to the principal's office.

Closest thing that happened was one student chucked a chair at another in a nearly-empty classroom. There wasn't a teacher in the vicinity but the crash brought one from across the way, who observed the like, four students standing still in the room, shocked, and ordered the perpetrator down to the principal after a short round of 'are you KIDDING me' questioning.

In my experience, if what the teacher saw was a real punch, (i.e., not just a playful punch on the shoulder or general rough-housing) he/she would send both of them to the office, and question any witnesses of the event. Of course, this could vary depending on a number of circumstances - if the teacher knows the two students have a history, his/her personality, and the schools policy towards fighting.

Depends on the teacher. I've seen coaches literally haul a kid off the ground and carry or drag them to the principal's office. Mostly I've seen teachers just yell at them to stop and escort them both the office. The principal will need to hear both sides of the story and of course the fighting kids can't be trusted to walk alone. I did go to a school that had security for two years, but they rarely got involved in fighting. It would have to be pretty bad, like the kids won't stop fighting even with coach involvement, for security to get involved. I did watch security drag a kid off a bus after they punched the bus driver, who understandably gave up trying to break up the fight after that.

I guess it depends on what kind of fight you're having, what kind of school it is, and who you want to break it up.

BrightSera said:

So...
Person A hits person B (let's say a full on punch to the jaw)
Teacher comes along and witnesses the punching, B doesn't do anything back to A (maybe because he saw Teacher? right now it's because there wasn't time)
Teacher yells and orders A to the principal's office

Then would it be up to the principal to sort it out?
Is it common to have zero tolerance policies on fighting, i.e. it doesn't matter if B was threatening to come to your house and burn it down with you in it and murder your dog, person A is absolutely in the wrong for throwing the only punch, or are there shades of gray?

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What's to sort?

That's not a zero tolerance policy, that seems pretty basic to me. That'd be the same as if a cop came along and saw person A punch person B. Person A could tell the cop Person B was saying he or she was gonna do whatever, Person A is still the one in cuffs.

You don't get to punch someone because the person said something.

BrightSera said:

I know that, you know that, but Person A doesn't quite understand that concept yet. AKA it would be boring if our characters always made the right decisions with impeccable logic.

It really does help, thank you!

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Of course not, but one presumes the principal and teachers know better than to listen to, 'but he/she said...!!!'

Does the teacher take the person who threw a punch to the office to the principal?

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In my experience, the school admin likes to keep the kids separated. So one would sit in the principal's office and the other in the guidance office.

This is funny. The chapter I'm currently working on deals with this subject as well. What sort of story are you writing, out of curiosity?

BrightSera said:

I know that, you know that, but Person A doesn't quite understand that concept yet. AKA it would be boring if our characters always made the right decisions with impeccable logic.

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Aye, aye to that!

escritora said:

In my experience, the school admin likes to keep the kids separated. So one would sit in the principal's office and the other in the guidance office.

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Or the nurse, if the punch seems it might've caused injury. Heck, go to the nurse just to be sure.

I haven't dealt with this in a high school situation, but I will say in a middle school situation, the first thing I did was step in between the two students, so that if one decided to throw another punch, they had to get through me first. I tried to speak very calmly to diffuse things before anyone went anywhere. There was enough yelling between the two parties that I didn't need to add to it.

Also, in the fight I witnessed, the kids didn't just calm down because a teacher was in sight. They were livid at each other, and you could tell they were deliberating if it was worth it to just shove me aside to get at each other. (When I dealt with a similar situation at the elementary school level, the kids did try to shove me aside.)

Now, if it was a bullying situation and the kid who threw the punch wasn't angry and just wanted to hurt the other kid "for fun," the situation would probably be closer to what you're describing, but a halfway decent teacher shouldn't be screaming at the students. Letting the offender know they're in serious trouble, yes, but not screaming. They also might raise their voice to get the students' attention and stop the fight ("Stop! What are you doing?", that sort of thing), but an unrestrained yell is more a sign that the teacher has lost control as much as the kids have.

I believe the teacher and/or principal would still talk to the students to try and understand what happened. No, kids don't get to punch people just because they said something, but you still want to know what triggered the violence so you can try to reduce it in the future. (Sometimes the kid throwing the punch isn't the bully, but has been bullied to the point that they finally break and lash out at the person tormenting them.)

Hope this helps. (Experience from substitute teaching... and from being horribly bullied myself in middle school.)

In Junior High, the gym teacher, Mr. Whisher, would pick both students up by the collar, take them to the gym and put boxing gloves on them.

In high school, "Everybody was Kung Fu fighting..."

Now days, the teacher ducks back into the closest room when the victim pulls out his 9 mm and caps a round into the bully's ass.

Seriously, both are normally escorted to the principal's/dean's office and the school resource officer is called in.

Jeff

Every fight I've ever been in or seen at school both people were sent to the office.

In my high school (graduated two years ago, so this is recent), the teacher would immediately call security staff and let them handle it. Both parties would then be escorted to the main office and possibly to the police station. Teachers were (and are) strongly discouraged from getting involved. We had one teacher try to break up a fight. He was Maced by one of the involved students. My high school had no on staff nurse, so they would just call the paramedics if it seemed bad enough. We also had a zero-tolerance policy--meaning that the party that defended themselves and did not throw the first punch would receive the same punishment as the one who did.

I went to a public Midwestern high school in the nineties, and teachers would get immediately involved if a fight broke out. If it was two big guys, a female teacher might not physically intervene, but she would be yelling at them, telling them to stop, until reinforcements arrived. Fights didn't seem to last very long, as there always seemed to be teachers present to break up the fight. Once things had calmed down, all parties involved would be whisked away, to the vice principal's office, I assume.

I got punched once in high school. Unfortunately for me, the guy that swung was coming around a corner and thought I was somebody else. I was placed in 'in school suspension' for 3 days for being 'involved in a fight'

Whatever, lol. High school, those were the days.

Sigh.

Witnessed this once when I was in high school (late '90s). One kid threw a punch at another over a game of table tennis in gym class. The gym teacher - who also happened to be the wrestling coach - pinned the first kid's arms behind his back, frog-marched him into the equipment closet, locked him in, called the school truancy officer, and went to check on the second kid. Luckily no major injuries, although it stopped class cold for quite a while! The first kid got suspended, if I remember correctly.

I am a female teacher. Twice I have had to physically stop fights. Once I only saw one student swing. I sent both kids to the office anyway. It is not a judgement call. Our handbook says any students involved in an altercation must be sent out of the location and to the principal, whether that student is actively fighting or not. As an adult and an interloper into their world a teacher cannot take sides and it is not possible to know the backstory. Both students are viewed as possible instigators. It is the principal's job to straighten the mess out. Each student has the opportunity to make his/her case, call witnesses etc. before the principal makes his final decision on discipline.

Mine is a small school, less than a hundred kids from Freshmen to Seniors. When we do have a fight the interrogations can go on for hours. Students, and sometimes teachers, are called out of one class or another to "testify". When the intercom comes on everyone flinches and we make funny comments. We don't have many fights but they do waste a couple hours of class time--s6