Admin Attempts Various Approaches in Response to Fighting Incidents

by Audrey Farris ‘25 and Jordan Costolo ‘25

Recently, Sherwood has seen a troubling increase in the number of physical altercations among students. What was once a rare occurrence has now become more frequent and concerning, leaving students, teachers, and parents alike questioning the root causes behind these outbursts, as well as what the school administration is doing to prevent it.

“There has been an increase this year than in previous years, yes,” explained Principal Timothy Britton. He attributed the recent rise in the number of fights to the winter months, when students spend less time outside and more inside school.

While there is no doubt that the number of fights occurring at Sherwood have increased, the number of security guards on the front line to stop these fights has been inconsistently staffed. Many security guards have come through Sherwood over the past five years, with only a few of them remaining for more than a year or two.

“Lots of the people who have worked here ended up moving to other schools,” said security guard Brian Morgan. “They originally thought high school was what they wanted to do, but changed their minds. This job can be a lot. I have done substitute teaching at some middle schools, and there are a lot fewer fights than what we have here.”

When other staff such as teachers are first on the scene of a fight, they may be reluctant to intervene because they have not received training from the Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) for how to break up a fight. “There’s no real restrictions on teachers intervening in a fight, but a lot of the time teachers don’t really know what to do, as security guards are specially trained to stop student fights and know how to separate people,” explained Morgan. “Usually, teachers are helpful for traffic control, keeping the area clear so security can do what we can do to separate everyone.”

In the aftermath of a fight, authority is shifted from security to administration, who are in charge of dealing with the students and any punishment they receive. “After separating the two parties, our [security’s] job on the scene is to investigate, take statements, and really just try and get the full story on what happened and why the fight occurred,” explained Morgan.

Britton said that not all fights will rise to the level of out-of-school suspension. When the fight is not considered to be a formal Serious Incident, the response “might just be separating the two, having a meeting, calling parents, and maybe assigning detention or an in-school intervention of some kind.” Britain added that when punches are thrown in the fight and certainly if one or more students get hurt, the administration will apply stronger disciplinary consequences.

In recent years, MCPS has shifted away from traditional punishment in which students are simply suspended from school for fighting. Social studies resource teacher Christine McKeldin is a team leader of the school’s restorative justice program, which is a county-wide effort to use mediation in response to students fighting. “I think restorative justice does help in a lot of ways. It teaches people how to communicate and solve issues on even ground,” said McKeldin. “Although sometimes students do need more than one intervention of restorative justice, it’s all a part of the process of learning how to deal with things without fighting.”

McKeldin explained that restorative justice at Sherwood is used along with disciplinary consequences, not as a replacement for them. The purpose of restorative justice is for the involved students to mend fences and stop conflicts from happening again. “I will say that students that have had restorative justice are not the same as they started out in 9th grade,” said McKeldin. “They show a lot more maturity and understanding now.”

“What [restorative justice] means is bringing students together, even the students that were involved,” Britton explained. “Trying to have students work out their problems instead of just saying don’t do it again.”

Cell Phone Recordings Help Normalize Fighting

by Aby Lo ‘26 and Shannon Naas ‘26

During this past school year, the number of fights that have escalated between students at Sherwood has concerningly surged. As students become more dependent on technology, fight videos tend to spread faster throughout the school, making it more accessible for students to see and share with others.

A New York Times article reviewed more than 400 fight videos from schools in California, Georgia, Texas and other states, as well as conducted interviews with three dozen school leaders, teachers, police officers, parents, and researchers. The article found that there was a pattern of both middle and high school students using their phones and social media to set up, capture, and spread the videos of their fellow peers violently beating one another. The phenomenon raises concerns about the safety of schools as well as about the educational environment in which students are seen on videos running down hallways or leaving their classes to watch a fight.

Principal Tim Britton agrees that social media as well as students texting on group chats has increased the frequency of disputes that sometimes lead to physical altercations. “I think phones have a huge impact because students are reacting to things that they’re seeing through messaging, social media, somebody sharing something with them–even if it wasn’t sent directly to them about them–and it’s happening in a much faster rate,” said Britton, who added that there have been instances when students have faced consequences when caught recording or spreading footage to other students.

Brian Morgan, one of Sherwood’s security guards, has seen firsthand that phones have contributed to the increase in fights. “When a fight happens, people end up sharing it around social media, meaning more people see it and think it’s more common than it is,” said Morgan. “The frequency of fight videos normalizes fighting in school. It encourages kids, making kids who might have problems outside of the building more comfortable with solving them inside the building.”