By Mylee Jones
If you see something, say something.
Violence between students is a blemish to our school, but you can help prevent it.
Mr. Ross Elwood, assistant principal at Delta, said students can help by not spreading rumors. If you hear something, don’t believe it before you hear from the person who has supposedly said it.
He also said don’t send mean texts, don’t forward something that you see on social media, and if you receive a text message or message in general that may lead to a fight or argument, try to take a screenshot so the office and staff can get to the bottom of it before anything happens.
Senior Layna Bowman is a leader who is president of Freshmen Mentors and also involved in many other school leadership activities.
“If you have a problem with someone, don’t bring it to school,” Bowman said.
Talk to other people and figure it out without fighting. Get an adult involved because sometimes they are overlooking it and need a different perspective on what is happening.
Bowman also said that students shouldn’t make fights seem cool. In addition to not fighting, students shouldn’t encourage it, either.
If somebody needs to report a suspicion the office will take it seriously. They try to keep the reporting person’s name out of it and keep an eye on things such as watching the cameras and listening.
“We try to get to the bottom of things before they get out of hand,” Mr. Elwood said.
He said that fights are kind of hard to prevent because various things pop up with social media, text messages and talking. It’s hard to predict where and when and so many times the office relies on students to let them know there is something brewing.
“What I do to help is, if I hear something I get both parties involved and mediate, come up with a peaceful solution rather than fighting,” he said.
There are multiple discipline procedures when it comes to fighting. One is when you record a fight on video, you get punished. In the student handbook it says using a personal computing device to capture, record or transmit a fight is a violation. First offense is three days of in-school suspension, second offense is five days of ISS, and third offense could lead to expulsion or 10 days of out-of-school suspension.
When you act in self-defense there are various ways you can get disciplined. It is quite rare and it would be the last resort.
Mr. Elwood said, “Self-defense in my mind, you have no other recourse than to fight back.”
There are many disadvantages to fighting. It can increase anxiety. Also, if you’re guilty of starting a fight and get disciplined you could miss a lot of school and fall behind in classes.
Mr. Elwood said, “I’ve been doing this a long time and there’s always been disagreements and conflicts that sometimes lead to fights.”
This year let’s try to change that for the better.
