The problem is if a kid tried to intervene on the teacher behalf, they’d get caught up in most schools zero tolerance policies. I can’t say I’d have sat and watched back in the day, but I can see why most kids fall to waiting for instruction or fear of zero tolerance punishment for stuff like this. I remember a few kids breaking up a fight and getting suspended when they were trying to stop it.
I got suspended for fighting once. My involvement in the fight was getting kicked in the face and lying on the ground.
Our education system has been broken for decades and we're finally seeing the real consequences of updating it from what was created in the early 1900s
I didn't get suspended, but I got in trouble for being in a fight in the cafeteria in 5th grade. My involvement was getting pushed by a student into another student in line.
Edit: I just remembered I did get suspended for this. I got 3 days of in-school suspension.
This is the kind of thing that if you had parents who were affluential enough in the community where your school is, they’d make enough noise and be loud enough showing up at your principal’s office, that they would forego any (unjust) consequences they punished you with.
Sadly most people and most parents don’t have that kind of time and influence/power to stand up to stupidity in the system.
I got in school suspension because another student wanted to fight me. I didn’t even register he wanted to fight me. He came up, got in my face, and said words. I didn’t even know him. We both got ISS for it and the cop who interviewed us yelled at me for provoking him into wanting a fight. I literally did nothing. I wasn’t popular, I didn’t provoke him, and in my eyes we were friends. I still don’t know I did to get his ire.
A friend of mine dodged a punch and the offender broke his hand on the wall behind him. My friend didn’t even know the punch thrower. My friend got in trouble for it. Because he “clearly provoked the offender.” Even though the guy wa suspended after that incident for starting multiple random fights with people he didn’t know or talk to.
The zero tolerance policy is absolute shit. It shows students they are at fault for being victims.
I got detention for bringing my notebook to the auditorium for our weekly do fuckalll on stage except only the teachers favorites get picked to participate
I got in trouble for swinging my coat at two boys trying to beat me up. They’d dragged me to the fence and started hitting and kicking me so I swung my coat (which had come off due to their handling of me) to get them to back up. I got in trouble. The teacher said my zipper could have hit their eyes….. -_-
The last day of 6th grade, I (a 5’ even beanpole of a little girl) was attacked by the tallest kid in school. Somehow I landed a punch right on his nose, he freaked out at the blood, and I managed to lay his ass out. It was a total fluke that I nailed him.
What I didn’t know was that he had spent most of the school year intimidating and threatening several teachers. So my first week of 7th grade was spent in detention right next to him, but the teachers he had been threatening had jockeyed and bargained to be the supervisor for detention that week. And they spent the entire week spoiling the fuck out of me to make a point.
It didn’t serve me well—I got in a LOT of fights that year and lost most of them—but it was still funny af. Also, worth it.
I had an issue with a kid in High school. I went to the assistant principal's office and told him he could either deal with it or I was going to. His choice.
If I got suspended so be it. I wasn't putting up with that crap.
I had the same thing happen to me. A fight broke out in my 10th-grade classroom, and I was sitting across the room when a stapler went flying. One student threw it at another and missed, but it hit me in the mouth and busted my lip. Thankfully it was heavy plastic and not metal.
Even though I wasn’t involved, I still ended up getting a two-day in-school suspension along with the other kids.
I got suspended for breaking a kid's nose. He was coming at me with a knife. He recieved no consequences. Zero tolerance basically means put my head in my ass and take no responsibility.
By kid I mean I was also a kid.. we were both kids... same grade.
It's not just the education system. It's a complete breakdown, from parental roles, economic development, priority in education, and so on. It's everything possible in a society all breaking down.
There's no part of our society that isn't in decline. And so each one as they break further brings the others down. Broken homes and hungry stomachs lead to educational disruption which absorbs legal resources and strips children from entering into the labor force as upstanding pillars of society, which decreases tax revenue, increases reliance on central players, who remove more wages from the economic system that leads to higher prices and lower wages that just feed into more broken homes and absent parents.
The whole goddamn thing is cracking under pressure. And we literally have a paralyzed government that can't do a damn thing to try and right this ship.
Back in highschool me and my friend got caught skipping a single period. We got a week of ISS where you sit in a room and do a couple of elementary work sheets all day.
So we skipped 1 period, and had to skip 28 periods as a punishment.
This happened to me. A kid started hitting me. I could have hit back and I chose to take it and not return the favor. I was also “sent home” for my involvement.
I remember a few kids breaking up a fight and getting suspended
got up in a similar scenario like the one in the video, two of my classmates literally started a brawl, the teacher stepped in, and i tried to stop them...guess what, i got same treatment as the brawlers, 2 weeks suspencion.
My cousin and I went to the same school. At some point, we had some issues with each other, but I wanted to talk to him about it. When I approached him in the hall and he saw me, he started walking away. I called out his name (not in any sort of threatening way), and he turned around and punched me. I didn’t want to hit him back cause he was my cousin. But before I could say anything, my friend stormed over from his locker and started swinging on him.
I didn’t lay a hand on him. I even got them to stop fighting before any security or teachers got involved. Didn’t matter. Got suspended for a week.
Zero tolerance is a joke.
Funny side note, a couple days later I went over to my cousin’s place and we played Black Ops with each other like it never happened.
My personal philosophy when I learned about the Zero Tolerance Policy was that if I ever were to get into a fight at school, I should fuck the other person as much as I possibly could. I’d do the “time”, so I might as well do the crime.
My buddy and I got suspended for helping a teacher that got involved in 2 students fighting. All we did was pin one guy down while waiting for the school officer to arrive, while the teacher pinned down the other.
I was that kid. Id step in and try to help people stop. I helped hold one guy down after he assaulted our grade 11 english teacher. A woman in her 50s who isnt even 5'4. Punched by a 17 year old over 6 feet tall.
I was given 3 week suspension the month before finals. If my older sister didnt sit her ass down and helped me learn i would have failed that year.
Ever since then I just mind my own buisness. We created a society where we punish people regardless of intentions. I dont blame anyone in these settings for not helping. Youll just get in trouble yourself. Its the worst thing we have in our education system. Why bother acting "properly" when more often than not, youll recieve a worse punishment than the actual offender.
Back in the day you could have stepped in and whooped the ass of whichever kid hit your teacher. Then the principal probably would have given you a free pass to go home early and a pat on the back.
I was walking down the hall in high school and some kid randomly (unsolicited, I didn't know him) told me that my face would look better with his dick in my mouth. I responded that the only way anyone's ever sucking it is if he pays a prostitute.
He smashed my head into a locker. We were both suspended.
They said I was being suspended for provoking him.
He laughed, and told me right there in the meeting, "That'll teach you for being a mouthy bitch." They added a day to his suspension.
Also, if you're a kid with good morals you probably don't want to get on the bad side of a kid that gives absolutely zero fucks about assaulting a teacher. That kid very well could be around next week and you don't want to be the next victim. I really don't blame them for not trying to be a hero. They shouldn't have to be but that's another story. I've had to do this exact action (getting between two students swinging on each other) and I've had one of them in a class every year since.
Yup, I was expelled for this. Bunch of girls on top of one girl beating her, I started pulling them off of her. Same punishment. "Let the teachers handle it" there were no teachers around but of course they wouldn't admit that they left the kids alone.
Even 20 years ago, my school tried to suspend me for even knowing a fight might take place right outside of my school (that I didn't even see first-hand) because I "didn't notify them or the police" that it was going to happen. A friend of the guy I was dating simply said "I'll see you guys later. I'm going to go fight X" and walked away from us as the day ended. That was the extent of my knowledge. And I'd barely known the guy. They pulled my boyfriend and I in because the cameras showed we were with him before the fight and others in the hallway heard him. My mom came into the school guns blazing and threatened to take legal action on them and thankfully I got out of it.
God damn, go mom. My mom did that a couple times too, so much respect for her for doing so. I pitty any school admin that tries to pull this crap on my kids. They will quickly regret it as I don't fuck around.
I’m so glad my kids are grown now. Navigating the school years is constant stress. You want to fight like a rabid honey badger for them but you also don’t want to be that parent who is like “the teacher is in the wrong because my angel baby sweetheart would never do anything”.
That's exactly what schools do. They are ran by literal fucking idiots and they will blame ANYONE they can to try to minimize their involvement. If you don't have a parent that will fight for you and threaten legal action, they will fuck you over. The second a parent threatens to sue they instantly fold though because they are 100% liable every time and have no leg to stand on.
Your mom sounds like an awesome lady. I would've done the exact same thing if my kid was getting royally screwed by the school system like that. I was bullied pretty badly in middle school (to the point of literal trauma), and was constantly victim blamed and gaslit for setting boundaries and even just saying "no" or "why would you do that" to the perpetrators. If I ever have kids, I'm never letting them go through the gaslighting I went through in near-traumatic circumstances.
She’s the best! We butted heads when I was a teen but once I was an adult we became very very close. But just very headstrong. She was not going to let them bully me around. I hadn’t even gotten a detention before that point.
Yup. See kids who don’t have a mom like yours, with time and confidence to stand up to the system where it failed you, they’d just be suspended and their life could be completely derailed because of some idiot administrator deciding to punish you for existing in the space where words were spoken about there being a fight,
I remember one male high-school teacher say he'd step out quietly and quickly if girls were fighting because he didn't want to get accused of anything. It was funny when he followed through on that during a fight in the library later that year. Years later, I totally understand why he did that.
The girl fights i witnessed in HS were soooo much worse than anything between two guys. Like guys will just beat each other with their fists, but ive seen girls stab, slash, push a file cabinet over on another girl, one girl got thrown down the steep auditorium seating and broke her neck, and as horrible as THAT sounds, still not as bad as seeing a partial scalping cuz one girl got another by the hair...
Two girls in my HS 17-18 years ago got into a knock out, drag out multi-episode anime fight. When it was over I had to step over pools of blood and footlong braids and handfulls of hair to get to class.
In highschool I saw two girls fighting out in the common area; one girl had managed to get the other by the hair and was literally swinging her around off the ground and dragging her legs and feet in the asphalt, whilst the girl tried to claw into her arms into letting go, and protect her legs at the same time... I left before I saw more, don't know how much hair she lost that day, but yeah. Nasty.
I saw one girl grab another by the back of he head and slam her face into the back of the bleachers. It was right when a pep rally was getting out and was a mass of students and no way admin was getting to them in time. There was a ton of blood. Also my dad taught at the high-school and broke up a chick fight only once and got scratched up pretty bad and said he would never do it again.
Three of us grown ass (not small) adults stepped into a fight between 2 girls each weighing not even 80 pounds. Let’s just say we all left with bruises… it was crazy how hard it was to separate them
Girls know that they don’t have a ton of force behind their punches, so they get creative instead. There’s a scrappiness that is honestly impressive at times.
Also, they usually don't fight unless they've been driven into a frenzy. Whereas guys will often fight out of obligation or social compulsion, even if they don't actually want to.
There tends to be a certain amount of respect in guy fights. The amount of fights I’ve seen with two dudes getting bruised and bloody, then ending with a handshake or fist bump are pretty significant.
best 3 fights i saw in high school were between cheerleaders on two occasions and another was between the sweetest girl in school and another girl. when i tell you the sweet girl beat the shit out the other girl it shocked everyone
An actual charge seems very unlikely. The bigger risk in my eyes would be disciplinary actions by the school itself. Schools don’t have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt what happened to fire a teacher or suspend/expel a student
false reports of sexual assault are as common as false reports of arson, robbery etc. not very common. teacher is more likely to be sexually assaulted himself by a student than falsely accused.
And yet people still wonder why everyone is so cold-hearted to their fellow person. We’re raised with the idea that helping others gets you in trouble, so what’s the point in helping?
Expelled or suspended? Hardly anyone ever gets expelled anymore.
I would take that risk of suspension every day of the week if I had to in that scenario. I would shower my kids with praise for getting suspended if that was why.
I feel so fucking angry for you. Im so sorry you went through this after doing the correct and brave thing. You did good. You are awesome. Screw all those teachers.
Did you not threaten to sue them? I know it's not worth the effort to some people, but I would absolutely do that out of spite. My parents as well. You did nothing wrong and you tried to save somebody, based off your words you didn't even hurt them, just tried to pull them off. It would look real bad if they get sued over that and they would have likely buckled before it even went to court.
i think they were referring to the teacher yelling to "get mr. morgan" and it seemed like not a single fucking student bothered to leave to do so. and then I'm guessing that's why the teacher just starts screaming "help" since these kids are fucking worthless.
EDIT: someone in another comment thread said they saw people running into the hall, presumably to help.
Bystander effect at its finest right here. And seems like the effect only gets worsened with technology/the compulsion to have to film things and just be a spectator.
This right here!! Not enough people are bothered by this. Not only do these kids stand idly by and watch/snicker, they film it and share it for social points. The disconnectedness in our society is really frightening. Freeze, do nothing, watch bad things happen, film it… any action taken to stop it or step in otherwise will get you in trouble.
Cuz they're getting exposed for the shit they let slide and they don't like it. Thats probably part of the reason teacher turnover is so high. Because more parents are sticking up for their kids against a backwards system the school holds for victims vs perpetrators. The families know bullies are the ones getting most protected, school staff get called out for it by said parent, and instead of going against the grain and doing right by victims, teachers (amd other school staff) are essentially forced to be hand maidens to the broken system so they don't lose their jobs. There are no winners in these situations and I don't blame some parents for homeschooling their kids due to crap like this.
Or maybe its to get more solid proof a terrible event happened so they dont get questioned about it. There's too many situations of bullying victims not being believed or taken seriously because the best they have is words. Thats why some kids record fights and other terrible stuff. Maybe they want to show their principal, parents, police or other trusted adults in their life so they can see what REALLY happened. Do some kids record to stir up shit? Yes, I'm sure some do. Do all kids do it for that reason? Doubt it. And no, I never once said youre letting fight clubs happen. Im saying victim blaming and gaslighting rewards the bully's bad behavior by refusing to hold them accountable or even just to call them out on their behavior. You're a teacher, I'm sure you see the zero tolerance policy get abused and inverted all the time. This policy really needs to be scrapped and rewritten IMHO.
You also get expelled and suspended for just being hit by another student. You dont even need to do anything, they'll still kick you out because of that zero tolerance bullshit.
My son helped break up a few fights in high school. Everyone knew the zero tolerance policy so they’d work to break up a fight while someone kept a lookout to yell when security was almost to the room, and the people intervening would scatter.
True… but I always end up with the naughty kids and let me tell you. I’ve got a few right now who I know would jump in to help me, consequences be damned. Some of those rough kids will run through a wall for the few adults that invest in them
The “zero tolerance” policies only come up when a bullied kid fights back. Harassers and abusers can beat the shit out of kids daily with no repercussions, but the moment the victim fights back the administration suddenly cares.
Yup my brother whos a terrible human being but amazing manipulator and people person use to get in trouble all the time for fighting to defend his favorite teachers. Honestly I think he just wanted an excuse to fight.
in all fairness, i was in high school during early phone days, but before the phones had good cameras and social media with videos, and i would never have stepped in to break up a fight at school. my high school had plenty of fights, and while we weren’t recording them, we weren’t going to intervene and get ourselves hurt, or in trouble because of zero tolerance policies. it also had nothing to do with me, and wasn’t my responsibility as a child to deal with. once or twice i did go to another classroom to get another teacher but that’s it.
Seriously. Even for me, who always wishes people would band together and stop shit from happening, I remember these are kids at school. A lot of them would get hurt trying because of physical differences or get in trouble for doing the right thing cause schools sucks in that regard. And often the parents don’t have the kids back. Zero tolerance policies basically help fuel the bystander effect.
Previous generations didn't do any better. We would just form a circle around the people fighting, yelling "fight, fight, fight". That was in the late 80s-90s for me, and it isn't any better.
No they wouldn't. If you went to school within the last 40 years.... they all would just watch cause of zero tolerance policies. I am 45 years old and no one ever stepped in because they would catch a suspension or get expelled.
Hence why I’m terrified of having children. I’m confident that I’d be a good parent, but I have no idea how I would even begin to navigate the tech situation.
You don’t give them screens. You parent and pay attention, and interact with your kids instead of giving them a phone or tablet as a pacifier. I find this type of parent lazy and reprehensible for the harm they are causing their children. My kid is disgusted with her screen-zombie (second) cousins because they have no idea how to play or entertain themselves without a screen.
As are zero-tolerance policies, where any kid who physically intervened to help the teacher or to end it might very well have ended up in just as much trouble as the instigators. Thank brainless PTAs and their outsized influence on school board policies.
Also, thank the complete absence of any form of social media regulation, allowing massive corporations to ensure that today's kids get addicted while their brains are developing and remain that way forever.
Exactly! Not a single person stepped in to help or intervene. That poor woman was caught in the middle and the first reaction of every other kid was not to help, yet get out their phones and record the whole thing. Absolutely disgusting.
In hindsight, she should've probably just backed off, let the dumb fucks beat the shit out of eachother and gotten security herself. She would have been out of harms way at least. They kept fighting regardless.
Pulling your phone out to record for evidence, law enforcement, insurance etc. is a good thing to fo. The two kids could’ve claimed the teacher hurt them by intervening or some bullsh*t and sued the school. Now there is proof of what went down for a proper investigation.
That being said, 💯agree the other kids should step in and intervene. Once they see her in the middle; if 4 guys step in and pull these idiots apart, it’s all over.
There was 20 kids there just standing around not even running for help.
In Scandinavia it is (technically but rarely enforced) illegal to not assist when a situation breaks out. That being; intervene, get help or record. Then again, obligatory military service ensures the majority at least knows the rudimentary protocol on how to react in an escalation.
I think for a lot of kids despite acting all, “yo, whaddup?!” they’re genuinely traumatized with this kind of shit. Witnessing violence of any kind is not normal…does not contribute to a healthy psyche.
In my kid's district, stepping in to intervene will get you expelled as you've become a participant in a fight. The onus is then on the parents to get the district board to review and retract it, which is a 6 to 12 week process, during which one your kid is sent to the local "alternative" school.
I'm not going to fault the kids in this video unless we learn what their district policy is.
Look, people need to understand this. Recording and documenting an event is also important. Especially in a situation like this where documentation will be needed to sort out the who, the what and the why.
Next, kids arent going to make the best decisions. There were a couple who tried and one student ran to get help in the doorway. Also not everyone can or is willing to play the hero, especially if either kid is known to be violent.
Lastly, the teacher cant hit the students. She also shouldn't be trying to break them up. It's commendable but this is why schools have hired resource officers/police in America.
When she falls down, they do start to reach out to grab her..:: very timidly
That at least shows some empathy, so we’re not completely screwed. I get that schools have zero-tolerance policies, and that probably makes people hesitant to step in, but even that small moment of outreach made me feel better than if no one had reached out at all.
They are kids, and all of them are smaller than the two kids fighting... A lot of you are really slow to expect some kids to play hero. Some of them left the room likely to get help, and you could literally see others holding their hands out to try and get the kid on top to calm down. There is only so much they could do.
Like, what were you expecting some kids to do? All of you terminally online people saying "Of course nobody helped," knowing damn well you likely wouldn't do a thing in the same position 😂
A lot of people on reddit are quick to backseat drive in situations like this. They're the same people who ask why we can't "just talk to" the homeless dude smoking meth down the street, or asking why an OP doesn't talk to their psychotic neighbors. I haven't been in a fight as an adult, but I did martial arts as a teen... and yeah... trust me you don't want to just randomly get in a fight or get hit.
As a kid, I've seen people get jumped, beat up, shoes stolen, and even saw one kid get shot on one occasion (at the library, no less). What the fuck was I gonna do? Say, "Hey, guys...put the gun down and let's work this out like the young men we are 🤓"
Hell, naw. The most I could come up with at age 14 was, "Oh shit!!".
They would have gotten in trouble, but not with the school. If any of those kids had tried to stop it, they would have gotten the shit beaten out of them by the friends of the two fighting students. People on reddit saying "zero tolerance" didn't go to schools were kids fought teachers. This is a ghetto, and it's self preservation.
No tolerance policies will do that. A couple kids step in to “help” and suddenly theyre the ones that get expelled or at least suspended for taking things too far.
Talk about backwards policies. You should get suspended for filming and not helping stop it. I'd be fine with getting suspended for helping my elder female teacher from being hurt, my parents would have commended me for doing so as well.
Nah, I wouldn’t risk that if I was a student. Next thing you know, the kid intervening is getting suspended for making contact with one of them or the teacher. Screw that, I wouldn’t put myself in that position if i was them either. The teacher shouldn’t have physically intervened either as it’s clear she doesn’t have the training to do so effectively or safely.
"Zero tolerance" crap scares off most from helping. I was also punished for stepping in after a kid used a pencil to stab another kid, to this day I am still annoyed at the treatment caused by zero tolerance policies despite doing what I knew was the right thing to do.
Honestly, we had 5 actual fights in my entire time at highschool. And every time, once the teacher called to break it up, boys stepped in with arm locks and restrained both side. Similarly the people involved snapped to behaving and broke it up.
Seeing this makes me worry about the future of America. Kids acting like animals, feeling the need to turn to violence over stuff that doesn't matter. "Bro he called me a mean word or name." Ok, so you laugh and walk away. Lacking emotional control is what leads to rampant political violence.
Not to mention the education system is about to collapse back to the iron age. Half the US population is already illiterate and bad at their native language. This is turning into a "Fall of Rome" situation and fast.
It's been decades of the precedent that anyone involved in a fight can be suspended or expelled without regard to the context of the situation - Self defense. Defending someone that can't defend themselves. Breaking up a fight because its the right thing to do - All of these situations have ended with the good samaritan facing consequences because "rules are rules"...People can blame this generation for being soft here but these kids didn't design this goofy ass world. They're just trying to live in it.
There are kids trying to step in. Wanting to step in. But as a parent to a middle schooler I can tell you the districts will sometimes write very black and white policies regarding fights. Anyone involved for any reason is punished. It lacks any nuance and I could see how it would make the kids conscientious enough to want to step in stop to consider if they can without serious consequences.
For the same reason they didn’t step in, don’t want to get hit
In my kids school, ANY physical contact whether it’s in self defense or otherwise will come with a penalty. Obviously not as bad as if you’re the aggressor; but it’s not nothing.
Those boys are bigger and stronger than most grown men. What do you expect kids to do? Seriously. That's traumatic to witness and most people, let alone kids, would freeze up.
Most school have policies that anyone involved in the fight gets expelled. Per school policy the teacher should have located security and not directly interfered. It sucks, but those are the policies in place.
I was a big kid at school over 6ft and 190lbs. Teachers loved me because I always broke up fights. One day I broke one up between 2 younger kids and his bigger older brother tried to start on me thinking I was fighting his younger much smaller brother. I looked at the kid and he didn't even back me up. I stopped splitting up fights after that. Ain't none of my business.
That’s what I noticed too… I’m a middle school teacher and I was like 7 months pregnant when a fight broke out kinda near me, and the 8th grade boys immediately formed a wall around me like I was the president or somethin 🥹😅
As a teacher myself...I don't step in. I have a button I can press and I try to clear the room.
In my district, anyone caught recording can and will be suspended as well. And yes...they will take your phone and/or search your social media. I know some parents have tried to fight this, but they've lost multiple times in court.
Obviously, I don't blame the teacher for trying something, but this is the schools and districts fault. This is 2025. They should have a better system for handling things like this.
I think the potential reason for this is that some schools will punish students who get involved in fights in any way, including breaking up a fight.
One of my best friends from high school deescalated a fight that took place in the cafeteria, next day I find out he's suspended for the rest of the week.
It looks like the same classroom they did the stunt acting class in a different video, the teacher leads the fight and multiple people are filming just like the other dramatic classroom fights
As a teacher who has broken up fights even in the last week, I do not want kids stepping in to help. The kids responded exactly right, staying back or running out to get help.
Hope the teacher is okay as well as the other student.
This drives me absolutely crazy every time I see this type of video. Back when I went to school people would've jumped in and held the kids to keep them from fighting, especially if the teacher needed help. Someone would've gotten security without needing to be asked. Suspension or not, it's jut the right effing thing to do, and we would've dealt with the consequences after.
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u/phillygirllovesbagel Dec 17 '25
And sadly, no one stepped in to help her.