At the end of school today, a group of female students started fighting each other. I didn't see the fight because I was in my room and the fight took place outside near the buses (they almost made it home). As I was sitting in my room, I heard this commotion in the hallway. A female was yelling, "My EYES!!!! My EYES!! Somebody HELP ME!!!" I thought it was a fight and I ran outside my room because it sounded as if someone was seriously injured. When I got outside, I saw about 3 female students screaming about their eyes hurting and not being able to see. One student was on the floor wailing. I saw the school officers standing around and figured they had the situation under control.The scene reminded me of Oedipus Rex when he had gouged his eyes out. For some reason, I felt more sympathy for Oedipus than I did for the females screaming as if someone was pulling their eyes out of their sockets. It turns out the police officers had to pepper spray them to break-up the fight.
In retrospect, my lack of empathy for the young ladies bothers me. My initial feelings were, "They should not have been fighting at school anyways;" "That's what they get;" "Hopefully it will teach these kids to think twice before they get into a fight." Am I wrong for feeling this way? Should students be pepper sprayed? One teacher said, "The officers are too rough with the students." I didn't think they were too rough.
I have seen some serious take-downs by administrators and officers. It's kinda like a "by any means necessary" situation. Most students will not stop with a simple, "Hey there. Let go of that students hair;" or "Could you please stop stomping the mess out of this young man's face." In some situations, the students are injured (a female was slammed to the ground last year and scraped her head against the pavement--she had punched an assistant principal in the face, breaking his glasses while giving him a black eye) and in others, the adults are injured. What are we, as educators/school officials supposed to do? At some point, adults also have to think about their own safety.
What do you think?
