Swears were shouted, books were thrown, hair was pulled, and punches were thrown. This has been a familiar scene at the Stoughton High School. In a time period of just two weeks, three fights have broken out. The worst part is that these fights were over something as simple as “he said, she said.” It’s just sad to see that students feel they have to resort to violence as a resolution to their problems.
Stoughton High offers many other ways that students can solve issues without causing injury or violence. Peer Mediation is a group of students that take the time to sit down and help with conflicts in hopes to resolve the issues before it gets out of hand. If the students involved in the fighting had taken the time to pay a visit to the peer mediators, they wouldn’t be in the mess they are in now.
“If these students had come to us sooner, we could’ve talked to them and tried different methods to solve their dispute,” junior peer mediator Ashley Gibson said.
Why take a risk of getting suspended or having in school suspension when these problems could have been prevented? Instead, these students chose the unjust way out of their problems and chose to use physical violence against one another. They couldn’t just have a heated argument. No, they chose fists. They chose to put one another in potential danger.
Time and time again students have been told if they are having conflicts of any sort, guidance is always open to help. So still the question remains. Why do students feel the need to afflict pain on one another when there are other alternatives to settle their differences?
This fighting needs to come to an end. There is no point to it. Just because someone said some rude remarks behind your back, talked to your boyfriend, or in general pushed your buttons doesn’t mean you need to start throwing punches around. It doesn’t make you look tough. All the students that gather around and watch are not watching in amazement; they are watching in disgust.
These barbaric fights not only affect the students that are getting hurt but also the school as a whole. Students don’t want to come to school thinking to themselves when the next fight is going to break out, they come here to learn and further their education. Certainly, students don’t want to see their peers getting injured and taken to the office knowing what consequences come next. They want a friendly environment where everyone tries to get along or at least makes the attempt and efforts to do so.
One of the things that amazes me the most is how these students react when administration, teachers, and even other students try to break the fights up. It’s as if they don’t hear or see them. They’re in their own world and continue to go at it until they are literally pulled away from one another. When you’re in school you do what you’re told, doesn’t matter who you are. After all, they’re just looking out for you.
The point of these words isn’t to bash anyone for fighting because what has been done is done, it’s in the past. However, what takes place in the future can be prevented if students just took the time and had the care to sit down and talk things out. As high school teenagers that might seem like a “loserish” or “not cool enough” way to settle things, but, to many it’s the better way and the safer way. Just grow up and realize fighting doesn’t always solve issues, it only makes them worse.
Do you want to be that kid with a nice big shiner on their face or that kid without one? Do you want to be that kid sitting at home on a school day watching TV or that kid taking notes and gaining knowledge in class?
Fights are preventable; it’s just how students decide to deal with their conflicts that determine whether or not another fight will soon break out at Stoughton High School.