Fights on the
rise Photo by Rylan Butt
BY RYLAN BUTT Co-Editor-In-Chief
Three fights occurred in a single week in October, sending nearby students in a frenzy as they rushed to watch the action. Within minutes, students swarmed the fighters, all holding their phones high trying to get a good video of the chaos ensuing. Rarely did students try to intervene or get adult help, leaving the two students to brawl it out before administration caught wind of the situation. The Raven Report reached out to students who were involved in fights this year, asking for their stories on what had led to a physical altercation. For the safety of the students, their identities will be kept anonymous. Fighting at Sequoia has been a growing issue over the past few months. Just this year alone, 25 plus students have engaged in some sort of physical conflict, leaving many students wondering why are there so many more fights this year. Part of this suddenness is because of distance learning. Zoom classes during the pandemic was not a completely peaceful time, conflict between students was still prevelant,
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but since everybody was at home, there were no physical fights and no one to witness and record them. “You get used to this, you know, very kind of peaceful experience with school because you’re not here. And there are not those conflicts that typically arise,” Administrative Vice Principal Gary Gooch said. The root causes for most fights can be traced back to a simple misunderstanding or disagreement that spirals out of control. “It felt like it was really quick [...]since I’ve been in fights everything goes so fast,” an anonymous student said. Feeling disrespected or threatened by another student has been a common theme in all the fights so far. This could stem from situations like feeling as if there is something to defend, insecurities and long-term beef. “[They were] shaking my hands in the hallway but [they were] still doing stuff behind my back,” another anonymous student said. Small arguments in the hallways and longterm conflict both can spiral into a fist fight if a student feels that is the best way to settle it. “I felt like I tried to talk it out with them several times, but they weren’t talking it out,” anonymous female student said.
Getting help from an adult is the conventional way to avoid these situations, but students often don’t feel comfortable reaching out. In response to recent events, the Sequoia administration is working to reduce these conflicts and improve campus security. “You may have seen me around campus too, and Ms. Oliver, Mr. Priest, Ms. Stout out and all of our campus aids. We are out there proactively,” Gooch said, “I’ve been doing this for so long. I can see it right. I can tell that something’s going to happen.” The administration and security team is still relatively small compared to the 2000 plus students at Sequoia. It would be impossible for administrators to cover all corners of the large campus at once.When taking bathrooms or high traffic areas into consideration, it becomes very difficult to stop a fight before it starts. “School doesn’t really notice until it’s really obvious, but if the school actually noticed
“I got suspended, because obviously I hit first. But I felt like if I didn’t do anything, [the fight] was gonna eventually happen.” Anonymous female student