School praised for swift action over fighting students

The National Parents’ Council has commended the swift action of a school authority in disciplining girls involved in a fight which was recorded and posted on the internet.

Council spokeswoman Jackie O’Callaghan said the speedy actions of the Cork secondary school should be commended after three pupils were suspended and another was given two weeks’ detention.

Up to 50 pupils stood and watched two girls from Christ King Secondary School in Turners Cross take part in an organised fight at a park in Douglas.

Nearly 30,000 people viewed the fight on the internet and hundreds more tweeted about it.

“I think it is a great sign of the school that they reacted to this so fast,” said Ms O’Callaghan. “Normally, school authorities wouldn’t get involved with an incident which took place outside the school. But this shows they have respect for the school and the students as well. It sets an example for other schools on how to deal with such situations.

“ If schools do this, I hope it will act as a deterrent to people thinking about organising similar fights.”

Principal Mary Keane addressed the school’s nearly 1,000 pupils yesterday, explaining to them the seriousness of the incident.

The parents of the suspended pupils were brought to the school, where they were told why their children were being disciplined.

Staff are continuing to try and identify all involved.

Disciplinary action against other pupils has not been ruled out.

According to tweets from pupils, the fight involving the two students, believed to be aged 12 or 13, was over a boy at another school.

A community garda has visited the school and is expected to do so again to speak with those who witnessed the incident.

The three pupils were suspended last Thursday after Ms Keane issued a statement saying the school viewed the fight as “appalling and unacceptable”. She said that while staff could not control the actions of pupils outside of school hours, they would discipline anybody who had brought Christ King into disrepute. She said staff were disappointed not just by the behaviour of those fighting, but also by those who were apparently urging them on, and who made no effort to intervene.

One girl, who had a rucksack on her back, was seen to initiate the fight when she pushed one of the protagonists against the other. Pupils formed a ring around the two girls and bayed for them to punch each other and pull each others’ hair.

YouTube has since removed the clip from its site. A spokeswoman for the site said its rules prohibited content such as pornography, violence, or hate speech.

“When people see content that they think is inappropriate they can flag it and our staff then review it,” she said. “If the content breaks our terms then we remove it and if a user repeatedly breaks the rules we disable their account.”