Taken directly from http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_3748.aspx
 
New School Fight Videos Surface As Parents Worry About Their Kids' Safety
Thursday September 21, 2006
They are beating the living daylights out of each other, trying to inflict as much damage as possible.

There are flying fists, furious feet, blood and bruises.

And while you might think police would move in to break up this brawl, they can't. Because no one is doing anything illegal.

Your kids have known of the existence of fight clubs at some of their schools for a long time. But to parents, the news that the bare knuckle brawls are taking place at all and that many of their own children are involved have left them in shock.

Videos posted of violent and deliberately staged high school fights have been around for a while. The first surfaced from a school in Orangeville. But CityNews has since found more  - including one from Toronto and another from Barrie.

But the kids who participate in or watch the videos claim adults have got it all wrong.

"It's just competition," protests student Andrew Stoner. "It is like a whole school event. Everybody clears out and it is interesting how, like, the fight can, like, attract so many people."

He points out it's not exactly fair to call it a 'fight club'.

"It is not like, today you are fighting, today you are not," he notes. 

"If you are going to be reporting anything, it should be that kids are fighting more and more at schools," adds a second teen. "That more fights are happening."

The principal of Orangeville District Secondary School admits it's a concern, but adds he's working on fixing the problem. But his hands are tied because many of the brawls take place off of school property. 

"We're going to try and work on this and help the students understand what is right, wrong, and deal with the problems of putting it on the Internet," acknowledges Steve Ratz.

Police agree they can't move in to stop the practice since it's completely consensual, no laws are being broken and no one's issuing any complaints.

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Here's how to spot whether your child may be involved in one of the violent clubs.

Look for signs of violence

The most basic tool you can use. Many of the brawls are excessively violent, draw blood and leave bruises. If you see marks on your child that can't be explained and if they appear repeatedly, find out why.

Check their phones, cameras and PDAs

A lot of the school fight videos are short. That's because the battles don't last long but also because many are taken via cell phone cameras. And kids often forget to erase them or take their time uploading them to the Internet. They'll likely accuse you of an invasion of privacy but if you're paying for the service, those phones are yours and you have a right to see what's stored on them. If you're suspicious, try to get a look at what they're taking video or stills of. You may be in for a surprise.

Look online

Most kids have a profile somewhere, and chances are pretty good they've claimed some kind of virtual real estate on a popular site like myspace.com. See if they've posted anything, provided they haven't made their section private and by invitation only. If they have, find out what they're hiding. Many teens will brag on their blogs about things they'd never think of telling their parents.

Get involved

While most teens would rather die than be seen in the company of their parents, it's important to keep the lines of communication open. Talk to them about their lives and find out who their friends are. Tell them what you expect of them and don't ignore problems, thinking they'll 'grow out of it'. If you have any concerns, talk to school officials.

The Reasons

Why do kids get involved with this kind of thing in the first place? Some will tell you it's a test of their strength and macho ability to fight.

Others will say it's because they're young and their judgment isn't always the best.

A few are simply looking for trouble.

And too many get sucked into it by peer pressure and bullies.

Some experts blame violent media and video games, but boys have always had a tendency to fight each other in a kind of right of passage. It's just rarely been this organized or this brutal.

"Boys have these warrior fantasies picked up from popular culture, and schools sort of force that out of them," suggests Michael Messner, a University of Southern California sociology and gender studies professor.  "The good guys always resort to violence, and they always get the glory and the women."

New York Sociology professor Michael Kimmel has a far more frightening take. "Real-life fight clubs are the male version of the girls who cut themselves," he believes. "They want to feel differently. They want to get hit, they want to feel something real."

And pain is often as real as it gets.

To see the disturbing videos from Oangeville, click here.

To see newly discovered video from Toronto, click here.