Fight Culture: the need to prevent it before it manifests

An epidemic has progressed throughout the Quad Cities. Students at Davenport West, Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley, Moline, and Central have had one fight a day across each respective high school. These recent altercations serve as a lesson about identifying the telltale signs of a fight, diffusing conflict from happening, and adhering to the appropriate steps to take once a fight starts. 

All altercations, excluding Bettendorf’s, presented a culmination of rising tensions which led to the these despites. A clear example of this occurred at Pleasant Valley when a student getting punched in the hallway escalated to a full-scale conflict a week later. Pleasant Valley faculty could learn a lesson from these incidents, as they begin to recognize that larger-scale disputes often emerge from smaller ones if they fail to address the situation. 

Public shaming or callouts whether they originate in person or on social media appears to promote a “fight culture”. It is important to consider the consequences of posting something that may include sensitive content. If a post explicitly insults or slanders someone, only more conflict will follow. 

According to OurQuadCities, “It seems as though a social media conflict was the major cause of this (The West) altercation” (2019).

Most of these “fights” are clearly one-sided in perspective. “It wasn’t a fight,” sophomore Heaven Johnson said about the altercation in PV on Wednesday, “they were kicking him when he was down.” 

If the fights evolve into an uncontrollable magnitude, students and faculty can suffer injuries in the process. Senior Kaiden Cruise explains, “My friend, who’s a police officer at Bettendorf, got hurt so bad in the fight there that he had to go to the hospital and get stapled, it’s not a game.” 

Physical disputes do not simply inflict injuries on those involved; rather, they affect innocent bystanders who had no role in the dispute at all; therefore, it is becoming increasingly clear that we need to do a better job at preventing these issues from manifesting in the first place. 

Ultimately, students can actively play in role in mitigating many of these incidents. Instead of reaching for phones to videotape fights, students should, if able, try to separate combatants and immediately contact the School Resource Officer or another teacher. 

Whether it be through educational programs or counseling, faculty and the administration must equip their students with the resources and tools to resolve conflicts and disputes before physical aggression materializes.