Parents concerned about Facebook page loaded with videos of students fighting
Wisconsin parents are expressing concern over a Facebook page depicting disturbing videos of students inside Oak Creek High School.
Clips of brutal fights among children have been uploaded to the "Oak Creek Fights" page, which has about 150 likes.
According to WITI, four of the videos show students fighting on or off school property. For instance, one that was recorded in a school bathroom shows a student bodyslamming the other into the floor.
"I think it's good to expose the truth of what's going on in the community so we can express our concerns," Julie Richter told WITI.
Oak Creek School District Superintendent Tim Culver said they've seen the Facebook surface before, and that one of the videos posted there is more than 18 months old. He added that officials have made multiple efforts to take the page down, but Facebook informed them that the page did not meet the criteria for removal.
Culver said that enough consequences are now in place to discourage fighting and the final tally of fights at the end of the school year will reflect that.
Police are involved and are working to take down the Facebook page.
Culver released the following statement to WITI concerning the story:
Sadly, someone is using Facebook to promote criminal activity among school age children and Facebook has denied our multiple requests to have the page taken down. A number of teenagers made and posted videos reporting a handful of fights that occurred over the last 18 months, some occurring on school property. It is very disturbing to see children fight, and even more disturbing to have to deal with it as school discipline which results in students' interaction with law enforcement.
This came to our attention last week due to a thoughtful person calling us. Since then we have viewed the videos and documented that in every case occurring on school grounds where we could identify the students, the participants have already been suspended or expelled and additionally referred to police for legal consequences. Fighting in Oak Creek-Franklin schools is prohibited and will always result in, at a minimum, suspension or at maximum expulsion, and referral to our School Resource Officer.
The reality is that this school year, due to diligent enforcement and hand in hand, proactive work with our School Resource Officers the number of fights is trending fewer than last year. The reality is that 90-95% of our students always do what's right and earn great honors in many endeavors from the courts to the stage. However, for those few who don't do the right things, we take corrective action. This is what makes it exceptionally sad for me to think that people seeing the criminal, even felonious videos might gain a different perception.
I'd like you to do two things. First, if something is wrong, tell us right away. We have procedures for assuring that every concern is addressed (visit the Contact Us page of our website). If you make us aware of the facts of the matter, we will investigate it and resolve it; or you can ask for levels of review all the way up to the School Board.
Second, the best experience of all, call the High School and make an appointment and walk the halls for an hour or a half day or a day. I try to do this at least once a week. You will be amazed given that there are 2,100 teenagers, in a space way too small, how polite and well behaved the public spaces are.
We will continue to try to identify who is posting these wrongful images hurting and/or embarrassing many people who thought their ordeal or consequence was over in the past. We will continue to reach out to Facebook to see if they will stop the glorification of violence and crime by youth. We will continue to take action with our police partners to eliminate violence in any form at our schools. We thank you for your help and support in this effort.
Regards,
Tim Culver
Superintendent
