EDUCATION

High school brawl: 'Why did nobody stop it?'

Stephanie Wang and Kris Turner
Michelle Brittain-Watts, Principal at Northwest High School, talks with media members about a series of recent fights at the school, including one which was recorded and posted from a smart phone, Indianapolis, Wednesday, May 6, 2015.

Two students walk up to each other in a high school hallway and stop. As they exchange their first expletive-laced words, a staff member pauses behind them. He assesses the situation, then moves on.

Within seconds, the students are goading each other, threatening to fight. Other students stop and watch, sensing something's about to go down.

And then in a flash, the boy jumps on the girl, punching her into the lockers.

He throws her to the ground with a thud and holds her down as he keeps whaling on her.

"Call the cops!" someone says.

A staff member in a suit steps closer. "Stop it! Kids, stop it!" he repeats, each time more urgently. "Let her go!"

For a fleeting moment, one of the staff member's hands touches the boy's shoulder, as though to pull him off the girl. But then he steps back. The boy latches onto the girl's hair. Several students step in to break up the fight.

The online video, depicting a fight at Northwest High School Tuesday, was provocative in its own right, but even more provocative to some was the response of Indianapolis Public Schools. According to IPS, teachers "are instructed to remain physically out of the altercation and call school police for assistance. Teachers are also poised to prevent any crowds from gathering in the area."

The male student was facing disciplinary action, IPS spokeswoman Kristin Cutler said Wednesday. Peg McLeish, a spokeswoman with the Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry's office said they are investigating the fight, but have not yet determined whether they will be filing charges.

The video and the policy raise so many questions. Why didn't the staff member do more to intervene? Do IPS policies actually promote student safety? Do other schools have similar policies? Should it be part of teachers' jobs to put themselves in the middle of brawls?

As Getina Newsome, the parent of a 16-year-old Northwest student, put it: "Why did nobody stop it? ... Where's the security?"

And what about the use of social media? Is it promoting fights? Why did so many students stand and watch? Is this something new? Or are we making too much of a fuss, just because such incidents are now often caught on video?

Simple questions, with not-so-simple answers.

A range of policies

In many other school districts teachers are allowed to use physical force to break up brawls, and the policy at Northwest did not ban the use of force, but it is not always recommended.

Take Wayne Township Schools: "The force used ... shall not exceed the force necessary to prevent or terminate the use of unlawful force by an aggressor," the district's written policy notes.

All teachers are also trained in verbal de-escalation, said district spokeswoman Mary Lang, and teams of teachers in each building are trained in nonviolent crisis intervention.

In Decatur Township, teachers are expected to make a judgment call in each situation, said spokeswoman Suzanne Rothenberg: "Every incident is unique as to the resources required for a safe intervention. Staff members are instructed to always prioritize student safety."

In Fort Wayne Community Schools, no teacher is required to physically intervene in any incident of student behavior that poses a threat to the teacher or others, the district's policy states — even though some teachers may feel compelled to get involved, said spokeswoman Krista Stockman.

And teachers are not prohibited from intervening by law.

Suzanne Eckes, an Indiana University education professor, said she was surprised that IPS policy called for teachers to not physically intervene, since both state and federal statutes protect them against lawsuits.

"I just think people are so misinformed about the law," she said.

Under a provision in No Child Left Behind, and under Indiana's Teacher Protection Act passed in 2009, Eckes said, "You are not liable when you're disciplining students in a reasonable manner."

If teachers are following district policies and acting in good faith to maintain school discipline, the state law grants "qualified immunity" from frivolous lawsuits.

Any injuries sustained by a teacher, she said, would be covered by worker's compensation. Any victims in a school fight, including an injured educator, could also file criminal charges.

Still, the teachers' well-being is also a factor. IPS teachers' union said it doesn't want to put educators at risk.

"We're not going to get in the middle of fights. That's not what we're here for," said Rhondalyn Cornett, president of the Indianapolis Education Association. "We're here to educate the students. We do what we can to keep everybody safe, because that's our job, too — we understand that — but I'm not going to ask people to injure themselves and put themselves in harm's way for a fight."

She added, "I know they're deeply concerned about their students. I know they hate that these fights break out every now and then. But they have to think about their own safety, too. ... We've had teachers hurt before."

Under the IPS policy, Cornett and others say the staff member shown in the video acted appropriately to defuse the violence.

"The first thing you try to do is try to use your voice to get their attention," said Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers. "It doesn't always work to de-escalate, but it's a good first step before you try to dive in."

Violence on the rise

What IPS really needs, argues Cornett, is not a change in policy. It's a change in culture.

The union president said school violence is getting worse, particularly at Northwest. While the administration is going through cultural training, Cornett said the students need it, too. The school lacks a positive culture, where students respect or accept other people.

In a news conference Wednesday, Northwest Principal Michelle Brittain-Watts said she implemented new anti-violence measures when she arrived at the school this year but was unable to demonstrate whether the programs have been effective. A sixth security officer has been brought on duty at the school, she added.

Students who spoke to the Star about the incident agreed that violence appears to be on the rise at Northwest. "Fights happen every day," said Northwest freshman Jada White, 15. "They don't even do anything to prevent them."

And she suggested social media does play a role.

Students threaten each other with, "I'll see you tomorrow," White said, so people know there's going to be a fight. Other students "know something is going to happen because they're watching everybody's Facebook pages, but they still don't do anything.

"They want to see a fight," she added.

The bystander effect

In these types of fights, something called the "bystander effect" also comes into play, said Craig Anderson, director of the Center for the Study of Violence at Iowa State University.

"When there are so many people present," he wrote in an email, "everyone is likely to feel less responsible for helping, precisely because there are so many other potential helpers."

Bystanders have to first recognize that an emergency situation is unfolding in front of them. Then, he said, they have to make a series of decisions that often take time to process: How do they intervene? And what would the consequences be if they did?

That some of those bystanders are armed with video may actually be used as a tool to stop fights, because it provides some evidence for accountability, said Purdue University communication professor Glenn Sparks, who studies mass media effects.

"There may be a growing sense in our electronic culture today that taking a video of a crime or an assault could actually be the best way to start the wheels of justice going," he said.

On one hand, Sparks said, video could be used as a way to shame people for bad behavior, as people are "becoming more cognizant that whatever we do, wherever we do it, it could end up on a video, videoed by someone we couldn't even see."

He cities a recent video that caught the racist chant on a bus by a fraternity in Oklahoma. While people may have felt insulated before by a sense of privacy, the video in this electronic age revealed it to the larger community.

But on the other hand, Sparks noted, video can be used to celebrate violence. Or, he said, it could be used to elevate something "into something that gets more attention than it might deserve."

And in the end, the video still leaves room for questions: "It's really hard to know for sure in any given case," Sparks said, "why someone would decide to take a video of an assault rather than try to stop the assault."

Jill Disis, Cara Anthony, Justin Mack and Will Higgins contributed to this story. Call Star reporter Stephanie Wang at (317) 444-6184. Follow her on Twitter: @stephaniewang.