Well, yes it needs intervention “right now” but more and more teachers are refusing to put themselves in harm’s way. I don’t blame them one bit.
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I don’t disagree - but you asked why wasn’t a SRO type person taking care of a fight. The logistics of having one available - if there is one - just doesn’t always work out!
I applaud @toledo for intervening verbally. When we turn away from things right in front of us that are not ok, we’re sunk. Intervening doesn’t have to be a physical move - calling 911, engaging through words, recruiting others to help - all can help turn things around.
There have been a few cases recently of sports team members, in affluent suburbs in Massachusetts, bullying and assaulting other team members. The boys acted badly, but the coaches turned a blind eye and the administration chose to ignore and let the coaches do nothing. Now that these cases are out in the open (and they were not nothing), people are calling for the firing of said coaches and administrators. But it is taking time and continual press coverage from journalists who care, to get the state attorney general motivated.
Without the victim coming forward, which did make it worse, the family going to the press, the press digging into the reports, nothing would have changed! This is unacceptable behavior and it has been going on for ages, but honestly, can’t we evolve??
I’m definitely for stricter gun laws, but start at the beginning where people learn violence is the only way. Start calling out this behavior.
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I wouldn’t intervene verbally because of the fear that someone might have a gun and turn it on me.
I will only intervene from afar, which would pretty much mean by dialing 911. I’m not going to put myself in harm’s way.
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And this is the difference between middle/high school fights of the past and the presence - the fear of more weapons. 
@CTTC I get that. 
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There is a thing in Psychology known as the herd mentality.
Large groups of people have been known to simply watch, and do nothing, while a violent crime is taking place. We are taught to help, but somehow what we know we should do does not, in fact, get done, and we become passive observers. It takes a “hero” to break out of that funk and do something.
Maybe that’s it – we figure that, surely, someone else will take action to stop the crime (or in this case, the fight). So we wait, and wait, for that to happen – waiting for a hero who sometimes never comes.
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Beatles -“Why don’t we do it in the road?”
Rod Stewart-“Tonight’s the Night”-had some explicit lyrics as I recall.
Jimmy Buffet “Why don’t we get drunk and _________.” People my age at the Jimmy Buffet concert singing this joyfully and LOUD. I remember thinking it was funny.
I could go on about some of the music we listened to in our youth!
I never witnessed a fight between girls in middle school or high school, and maybe only one or two between boys. I’m sure there were some that happened, I just never witnessed one.
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I don’t have hard data, but I think the proportion of students walking around with knives was way higher in the past.
In other words, just like general levels of crime then versus now.
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Most people probably assume that someone fighting is better or more experienced at fighting than they are, or that the ones fighting or their buddies have concealed weapons.
There is also the possibility that someone trying to break up a fight may be mistaken for or framed as one of the instigators or aggressors. Most people do not want that legal trouble.
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Yep, exactly.
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Right, they view inaction as the safer option.
In addition, successfully breaking up a fight without or with a minimum of additional violence requires that the one breaking up the fight is respected or feared (or both) by the ones fighting.
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To expand - we are seeing a spike in fighting in school which goes against the long-term trends for the same reason that we are seeing more violence outside of school.
I mentioned it, but I’ll say again. We are seeing grown ups who will punch some poor flight attendant or sales associate because said flight attendant or sales associate asked said adult to do something which the adult did not want to do.
My point is that the reason that there is a spike in violence between kids is not because “Kids these days” are anything. The kids are fighting because “adults these days” are behaving like toddlers.
Those two girls were behaving no differently than the almost 1,000 adults who physically assaulted flight attendants during 2021, or the hundreds who physically assaulted teen age servers at restaurants, or the people who attacked the capitol.
These were not people who were angry over years of neglect, poverty, and mistreatment by police. These were middle class suburban moms and dads. No wonder kids are behaving the same way.
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Maybe they were practicing for a school play and were re-enacting that scene from this years’ Oscars 
Some of those T-ball umpires have had it coming to them for a long time. 
They were probably too busy shooting videos to upload to their favorite websites…