Parents Encouraged to Communicate With Kids About Problems With Other Kids at School
MARSHFIELD, WI (OnFocus) – The Marshfield School District and specifically Marshfield High School has seen an increased amount of physical altercations in the 2021-22 school year.
The uptick in fights coincides with an increase in fights being posted online and specifically, on Instagram. Marshfield Police Department School Resource Officer Matt Berres said the district cannot do a whole lot about the videos themselves being posted but they report the account that posts the fights to Instagram.
“There have been multiple ‘fight pages’ that have been posted to Instagram,” Berres said. “What we try to do is report it as much as we can to Instagram so their administrators can review it and ultimately take it down. As soon as it gets taken down, another one pops up or gets created. We’re constantly being informed of fight pages coming up all the time.”
Berres said fights happen every year but this year, there have been more fights.
“There’s been more [fights] this year,” Berres said. “I don’t have a reason as to why there have been more this year but there has been an influx on the number of fights we’re seeing.”
According to the Marshfield Schools student handbook, students may be suspended up to 15 days or expelled for fighting.
When asked what they are doing to help mitigate the opportunities for fights, Berres said they are increasing police presence at the school.
“We’re doing what we can to make sure it’s safe here,” Berres said. “We’re having patrol come in and do walk-throughs. We’re just doing what we can to make sure that this stuff is curved or settled down.”
Berres said parents can help their kids and district staff by having open lines of communication with their kids about issues going on at school.
“If your kid is having an issue with another kid or if there’s harassment that is ongoing, they need to report it to us,” Berres said. “A lot of times they let it fester and then it turns into a fight so if there’s something going on with another peer, they need to come talk to us about it so we can deal with it.”
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