Callace

Pupils forced to fight bare-knuckled in cage at US school - Times Online

Pupils at an inner-city high school in Dallas have been ordered to settle their differences with bare-knuckle “cage fights”, according to a leaked report.

Students at the South Oak Cliff High School in the Texan city did not end up in the head teacher’s study if they got into trouble with another pupil. Instead they were sent to the cage — a wire mesh enclosure in a gym changing room — for a bare-knuckle brawl.

“It was gladiator-style entertainment for the staff,” Frank Hammond, a school counsellor who says he was sacked for whistleblowing, told The Dallas Morning News. “They were taking these boys downstairs to fight. And it was sanctioned by the principal and security.”

The report has provoked public outrage that, although disciplinary action has been taken, no criminal charges have been filed. The allegations surfaced during an investigation into grade fixing in the school’s sports department.

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Teachers are accused of altering student athletes’ grades so they could continue to be eligible to play for South Oak Cliff, a school in a poor part of the city that dominates the state basketball league. The investigation uncovered evidence of coaches and security staff staging bare-knuckle fights.

A confidential report described two fights in the cage between 2003 and 2005, but did not make it clear if there were other fights. In one incident, a security monitor tried to fight a pupil in the cage but the principal broke it up.

In the second incident the principal, Donald Moten, allegedly told security staff to put two fighting students “in the cage and let ’em duke it out”. Mr Moten denies that the fights took place.

Gary King, a security monitor, told investigators that he saw the head of school security and an assistant basketball coach place two students in the cage to fight. Another monitor, Reno Savala, said that he came upon two students fighting in the cage “bare-fisted with no head or eye protection”. The assistant coach was watching, but broke up the fight when asked.

Angela Williamson, a parent, told The Dallas Morning News that staff ignored her complaints after her son, Cortland, went home with a swollen hand from a fight in the cage. She said that she had met an American football coach who encouraged the fights. “He told me this is how they settled disputes in his day,” she said.

The report by Dallas school authorities found that Mr Moten and other staff “knew of the practice, allowed it to go on, and failed to report it”. The confidential report said that the staff’s conduct “may constitute a criminal violation”.

Mr Moten, who retired last year, denies that there were any “cage fights” during his tenure. “That’s barbaric. You can’t do that at a high school. You can’t do that anywhere. Ain’t nothing to comment on. It never did happen. I never put a stop to anything because it never happened.”

vc318

No criminal charges were filed? What's wrong with these parents? Do they think this sort of treatment is acceptable or something?

sunnykerr

It reminds me of that story of the mental-health clinic patients forced to stage fights for the amusement of the employees there. It's truly sickening.

Callace

it really is! I totally can not see what they were thinking

sunnykerr

Forget thinking, how could a person with a fully functioning heart do that to a fellow human being?

Callace

a very good question. I dont get that at all. Those people must have a really morbid sense of fun

vc318

And the first thing they want to cut from education is school police. Is there any wonder why this sort of thing goes on?

sunnykerr

Well, maybe they also ought to think about cutting down classroom sizes. Seriously, education in general needs to be better funded.