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INVESTIGATIVE UNIT: Classroom brawl caught on camera; Where were the teachers?

7 years 7 months 2 weeks ago Thursday, February 23 2017 Feb 23, 2017 February 23, 2017 4:26 PM February 23, 2017 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE- Shocking video surfaced Thursday of a violent fight in a classroom at McKinley Senior High School.

The video was recorded by students and showed a group of kids in a brawl.  There appears to be no adult supervision inside the classroom.

The fight begins with one student kicking another in the head.  For more than a minute, two male students go after each other.  At one point, one grabs a stapler off the teacher's desk and hit the other student with it.  The video continues with the sound of glass breaking and students pummeling each other with punches. At no time in that video is an adult seen or heard trying to stop the teens from fighting.  

School advocate and former BESE Board Member Chas Roemer watched the fight and said it's one of the most shocking fights he's ever seen.

"I would say it is one of the more disturbing ones that I've seen," Roemer said. "This is very disturbing, from the level of violence to the social media involved and no apparent supervision."

Superintendent Warren Drake was not amused when he saw the video.  

"I don't know if a substitute teacher was there that day, but the principal has addressed that," Drake said. "The principal not only has addressed the supervision piece but the discipline of the students involved."

Roemer said the video shows the need for an important discussion about school management.  

"Every student has a right to a free and fair education," Roemer said. "But at what point do you allow a student to disrupt that opportunity to everyone else and at what point do you stop it? It's a question that you have to ask."

As for the students involved in the fight, WBRZ has learned they're back at school.

"Seeing that, it's absolutely unacceptable," Drake said. "We are not in the business of doing that kind of thing. It's sad that kids will record things like this."

The fight was recorded and posted to social media where it's going viral. Superintendent Warren Drake called the fight an isolated incident.

The entire video is attached to this story.  Cursing has been distorted and the faces of the kids involved have also been blurred. 

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