Poll: Is the “No tolerance” policy for fights in school appropriate, or too far?

Posted February 27th, 2009. Categorized under High School, Life. 7 Comments

Fights are an inevitable part of school. They’re also pretty remarkable… as soon as one begins to brew, you can almost feel the tension pulsing throughout the school, and students always have an instinctive sense that tells them which way to go to watch. Students would always crowd around the fight, not only to watch, but to block administrators from breaking up the fight. For a lot students, fights are the best entertainment at lunch. I was the same way — I loved watching fights. Why, I can’t really explain or justify, but I enjoyed spectating.

Sure, school fights rarely involve karate, they draw a lot of attention from everybody.

On the administration’s end, fights are a nightmare. Having to break them up, deal with the students involved, and prevent further fights is definitely a nuisance, and so schools do their best to prevent fights.

A really common method to prevent fights is the “no tolerance” policy: if you are in a fight, you are going to be suspended, no matter what. Over the last ten years, this policy has caught on strongly. But is it fair, and does it really solve problems? I’ve never been convinced.

The flaws the schools don’t realize

No matter what the circumstances leading up to the fight are, all involved members are going to receive the same punishment. This works out well if both parties are the leading cause, but what if you are jumped by a group of people? What if you did nothing to instigate the fight, but suddenly find yourself in a situation? In theory, the only way to avoid punishment is to let the others beat the crap out of you until help comes. Never mind that you did nothing to bring this on yourself — you’re going to be suspended. Some schools allow you to defend yourself, but typically their idea of “self defense” kicks in after you’ve been punched around a few times, by which time the fight could already be over.

Backing out of fights, like schools wants you to do, is a great way to lose face and ruin your reputation. If someone challenges you to a fight to resolve an issue and you back down out of fear of punishment, then you will have to deal with mock and ridicule over it for a while. Sure, reputations aren’t everything, but I know most people would rather choose a week of suspension over being ridiculed for the rest of high school. Backing down could also encourage people to antagonize you further because they know you won’t fight back. Stories with morals always encourage kids to stand up for themselves, but schools expect you to back down and tell a teacher. Many parents — my own included — are accepting if you get in a fight to defend yourself rather than back down and let people walk over you.

Fights can also solve problems. Once, I was in a long feud with a friend of mine — we were always at each other’s throats with insults and stupid bickering, until one day we were about to fight. The fight got broken up, but for some reason we were just able to drop the drama and get over it. We became friends again. Some times (for guys especially), fighting is the best and final solution to tension, and after the fight, life goes back to normal. Delaying or avoiding a fight can prolong the tension.

Lastly, discouraging fights on campus only encourages them to happen off campus. Fights off-campus will go on a lot longer before being stopped, and weapons are more likely to be drawn off campus as well. At least on campus, administrators can come break it up before things get severely out of hand. Just because schools prevent a fight from occurring on campus doesn’t mean the fight won’t occur at all.

How should fights be punished?

I do believe that there are many times when both parties should be punished equally, but that’s definitely not true in all cases. The no-tolerance policy makes fights a black-and-white issue when in reality there’s always a lot of gray. Punishments need to be based on the context of the situation, and both sides need to be heard. A student who is jumped or is defending his or herself should not be punished nearly as severely as a student who antagonizes others.