After a great deal of deliberation and shared ideas from the police chief, the school superintendent and the mayor’s office, it was decided that all those who were present and took part in the fight between two Lynn English High School girls should receive suspensions from school.
The broadcast of that 8 minute fight made it, of course, on to You Tube, where tens of thousands got to watch two young women beating one another with an eager crowd urging them on and laughing at the same time.
The fight itself was as ugly as it gets.
With a crowd all around the fighters cheering and asking for blood, so to speak, the two English High School students went at it, rested and then went at it again, pummeling one another in the head with their fists.
No one was injured. It wasn’t as though anyone had been stabbed or shot. And it wasn’t sexual violence or abuse as we have come to know it.
That being said, the fight was disturbing because it happened in the first place. High school aged girls shouldn’t be punching one another under any circumstances nor should high school age boys, either.
It comes to pass that those watching and cheering on the fighters are almost as guilty as those throwing the punches because to acquiesce when two girls are fighting is to condone such an incident as though it is alright.
Also, to video such a fight with a hand held telephone and then to mount it on You Tube for the entire world to access compounds the entire affair and in a way, this too was an anti-social crime.
This was a first time event for Lynn. Hopefully it will be a one time thing only.
Perhaps there is a lesson learned by those suspended, perhaps not.
At least the punishment fits the crime but does little to erase the black eye given to English High School and the city itself.
The negativity about this city held by others who do not know this place has been vastly exacerbated by the general impression left about this place after viewing the video.
All the suspensions in the world will do nothing to unmake this incident and the bad publicity it has caused. All we can do is work harder to make Lynn a better place and to lead by example and to educate our children that to watch two girls fighting and to egg them on is absolutely wrong.
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