Students and parents say a suburban high school has become a battle zone after videos showing a number of fights at the school began surfacing on social media.
Parents are demanding Crete Monee High School take more control after a video showing numerous fights at the school went viral on social media, sparking outrage in the community.
“I actually got hit in the head and I got smacked by the pole,” said senior Tyran Beard. “It was just crazy, everybody’s trying to record, trying to get in the middle.”
Still, Superintendent Nathaniel Cunningham Jr. said fights make up only a small percentage of the school’s discipline issues.
“One fight is one fight too many,” he said. “But only 10 percent of the discipline issues that we have at Crete-Monee are fights.”
Some of the more than 1,500 students at Crete Monee High School, however, say the fights are now happening weekly, some even daily.
“It’s just one of those things where you have to crack down more and watch Twitter because that’s what most of the fights are all about,” said senior Tristan Grant.
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Cunningham Jr. said parents have a right to be concerned, but noted the district follows state guidelines, which do not allow a zero-tolerance policy on fighting and discourage suspension or expulsion for fighting.
“When you have 1,600 students there’s going to be conflict,” he said. “We’re working on more proactive ways to have conflict resolution.”
