KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A parent and community activist claims a video shows an organized fight taking place inside Wyandotte High School, and now he’s demanding that school leaders stop what he calls an organized fight club.
“They are set up for entertainment and fun but with no referee, with no adult supervision,” said community activist Alonzo Washington. “We can look at deadly things taking place.”
Cellphone videos of these organized events remain popular among teens. The latest purports to show a fight inside a rest room during the school day at Wyandotte High School, and Washington calls it evidence that school leaders aren’t doing enough to stop organized fights.
A Kansas City Kansas police officer at Wyandotte High School told Fox 4 News rest room fights like the one in the video are just as common at suburban schools as they are at any of KCK’s schools. He even says the fact that other students appear to have known about the fight and had their cellphones ready to record it is not unusual nowadays.
Washington believes it’s just a matter of time before someone gets killed in such a violent event.
“I have kids in the Kansas City Kansas school district,” Washington said. “If they can’t control and police those bathrooms, that’s a problem. What if there’s a big fight organized and then somebody pulls a knife. Somebody pulls a gun. We have to have our children safe.”
FOX 4 News provided a copy of the so-called fight club video to KCK school leaders but they declined our request for an on-camera interview, saying that they need more time to scrutinize and evaluate what we’re showing you.
Washington claims too often organized fights get out of control, and end up with someone bloody or hurt. He wants the schools or police to do a better job monitoring rest rooms and locker rooms, the places where he says many of the fight club events are taking place.
“When you go to school, it should be about education,” said Washington. “It shouldn’t be like hunger games or lord of the flies. It shouldn’t be battles taking place in the schools. I want the school to get on top of it and try to make it safe for everybody.”
Washington says schools have disciplined kids that they identified in earlier fight club videos. He hopes that by making this one public, parents who see their kids come home from school with cuts or bruises will recognize they may be involved in these organized fights.
Washington says an adult organized boxing club or mixed martial arts club, where there’s supervision and referees would be a safer outlet for kids who want to put on a show for the cameras and fight.