Editorial: Sharing fights for entertainment reflects the divides at our school

The recent uptick in violence on our campus has been no secret: throughout the month of October, it seemed as if one could not escape the shadow that it cast. Like clockwork, every two days, there was a new spat, a new flood of students running to witness the spectacle, a new, bloody clash, and a new cycle of gossip and intrigue circulating throughout the student body. This increase in the number of fights monthly, even daily, is unprecedented in the recent history of our school. But the root of the issue, this culture of violence, lies not with those who threw the first punches. Those who perpetrate fights are merely a symptom of something greater, something that has been lurking within the fringes of the public consciousness, and only now seeks to rear its head: the deep divisions running within our school.

The prevalence of videos, and how they tacitly encourage the spectacle of fights throughout the Sequoia community, is a topic that has been spoken about at length by students and faculty alike. Frequently, our administrators and authority figures tell us that the crux of the issue is our circulation of recordings of altercations, and while they do contribute, it would be rather shortsighted to see this as even a primary factor in the uptick in fights. For a culture of video sharing and spectacle to flourish, there must first be an ‘othering’ of those being filmed, a subconscious dehumanization of those who are not in our social circles. It’s not difficult to do this, to completely overlook the humanity of an out-group. Although Sequoia takes in students from schools like Central, Clifford, Hoover and Roosevelt, that is not to say that this school is a melting pot. It is not uncommon, or unnatural, for students to stick to the connections they’ve maintained since as far back as elementary school, seeing no need to reach across the aisle for something new. Because of this, when a fight occurs, the emotional pain from that incident will only truly affect a small portion of the school’s community: the rest is too disconnected from the issue to see the issue as anything more than entertainment and gossip.

The administration, too, plays an indispensable role in stopping violence on our campus, a role that they seem to have failed to fully realize. It is not enough to play whacka-mole with each fight, merely reacting as these incidents occur. Rather, a more direct, reformative, and constructive approach is necessary. Our systems focus on punishment as the ultimate remedy to societal hills, and it is unfortunate to say that Sequoia High School is no exception. Rather than extending a hand towards the victims and perpetrators of fights to understand and reform them, our administrators believe it to be sufficient to simply remove them from school grounds until they eventually return to the same kind of behavior. Though it is necessary to remove those involved with fights from school grounds for safety reasons, it is not enough. Fights are often the result of some form of social/emotional issue, and creating a healthier campus culture would mean tackling those issues head on instead of pushing them out of sight and out of mind. It is also the students’ responsibility to trust in our school’s support systems, to see them not as a sign of weakness but as a way to self-improve.

As a school, it is crucial that two things are done. We first need to break out of the sociocultural bubbles we have encased ourselves in. To reach across divisions of geography, ability and identity, and to recognize each other’s humanity, would be the ultimate blow to the culture we are steeped in currently. When we see each other as peers, we no longer take joy in each other’s suffering. Similarly, our administration must recognize our humanity and capacity to change. It is not simply enough to punish a person, they must be made to understand and change their ways if the issues that they cause are to be truly extinguished. When these two things are completed, we can, as a community, begin to unravel the culture of violence that has gripped us.