FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Another fight among students in a classroom was caught on camera.
In the video, a teacher is seen helpless to stop the violence, which went on for far too long.
It happened Tuesday at Stranahan High School in Fort Lauderdale.
The two students involved are facing discipline from the Broward County school district.
Broward County’s teacher’s union, meanwhile, said this is another incident in a scary trend.
“We know we’re short-staffed, we’re under-resourced, but we still have to do better because it’s happening,” said Broward Teacher’s Union President Anna Fusco.
In just the last few weeks there have been several brutal beatings, leading to discipline from the school district and even arrests by local police departments.
The question though is why is this happening?
“There’s I want attention, or I’m angry and I’m frustrated and I’m going to act out in a violent manner,” Fusco said. “We don’t want every single one to turn into a suspension, an arrest, but you still have to have some type of understanding what’s going on and there needs to be consequences.”
Fusco believes the district is currently working on updating its discipline matrix to create different penalties for violent incidents like these, but she says it’s taking too long.
Plus, she says a major shortage of security personnel in schools means getting someone into a classroom to stop these fights, takes longer than it should - because often times, teachers can’t intervene.
“Our teachers come to teach and educate, they’re not law enforcement, they’re not safety and security, they’re not wearing bullet proof vests, they’re not taught how to get into combat, that’s not what they’re there for,” she said.
Asked what she thinks needs to happen next, Fusco said she believes a good first step for the district would be to become much more proactive, doing things like having students working with guidance counsellors and mental health staff. Unfortunately, that all comes back to the issue of school districts across the country being underfunded and short staffed.