A fight between two East Nashville Magnet High School students has some asking if how an administrator broke up the fight was reasonable.
The fight allegedly happened earlier this month.
Some are thinking the administrator tackled one of the students but Dr. Tony Majors with Metro Schools says what the administrator did was justified.
“The person that was the aggressor was on the ground. The administrator did cover that person, holding them so that they cannot continue to fight and wait for additional staff to come in and provide assistance,” Majors said.
He said the two fell to the ground because the administrator lost his balance. The video also shows one of the students hitting the administrator trying to get to the other student.
“the second you begin hitting an administrator now you're guilty of assaulting an administrator or teacher which means you could face up to a calendar year of expulsion,” he said.
Fights at schools are not new but there seems to be a growing trend of posting school fights to social media websites.
A fight between students at Hillsboro High School earlier this year has been watched nearly 800 times on the social media app Instagram with the hashtag #HillsboroProblems.
"We don't have a program that says this is how you break up a fight,” Majors said.
The executive officer of student support services says one way to deescalate situations turning physical is for students and teachers to be aware of their surroundings.
Majors mentioned that Metro Schools have implemented a program called VITAL where teachers and staff look at violence intervention techniques.
He said further help would come from school resource officers which each middle and high school has but he wants students to step in too.
“We need for students to be very forthcoming. What's the reality of their life, what are the issues that are impacting them,” he said.
He would rather have students pull each other apart than pull out their phones.
“So it's not only about training teachers, it's also about educating and empowering our youth to be a positive change agent in our schools but also about empowering our parents to help set that standard about this is the appropriate behavior in school and this is not,”
The Department of Education says there were 3,600 students assaulted in Tennessee schools last year.
It’s unclear how many of those assaults were recorded and posted to social media.
