The attached article describes a new policy in schools. I was shocked to learn about this in my recent work in Mansfield City Schools; legal repercussions for school fights! At our school students who engage in physical fights with each other are going to get a charge. With schools enlisting the local law enforcement in the form of "Resource Officers" there is usually someone on hand to file and send the reports to the prosecutor's office. This is a policy that is completely different from when I went to school, only 6 years ago. The usual policy was a visit to the principal and some time spent out of school for suspension. Recently, a fight broke out between students, and the highschool principal was involved in breaking it up. The principal was kicked and injured by one of the girls and the resource officer told me the girl might get charged with felonious assault. I can see both sides of this; school faculty and staff need to be protected but also this policy seems harsh used as a blanket for all situations. This topic shows the interaction between the education system and the criminal justice system.
I agree with your response. While we want to keep students and staff safe I am not sure if legally charging students is the way to go. I also do not think it will stop fights from happening. When fights happen, youth are not thinking about the consequence that will happen. Instead they are caught in a moment that they are responding to. I taught for three years in Cincinnati public schools and broke up several fight between both females and males. Many of them which I was also hit. Never did I once think about pressing charges against them. When an adult makes the decision to break up a fight I think you have to realize you might get harmed in the process. However, I do think that teachers and staff need some sort of policy that protects them from a student pressing charges against them. Ive know multi staff members, including myself, where a student reported that the staff breaking up the fight hurt them. It is definitely something that need to be taking into consideration, however, I think there are other alternatives rather than legally charging a student.
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