Via Nappy.co
More than 60 teens watched a fight between Khaseen Morris and a group of other students. Morris was stabbed and eventually died - turning the video on the teens’ phones, and posted to Snapchat, into evidence of a murder.
“I would hope... students would break up fights, not just stand there and video,” said Tim Winter, a school district Superintendent. But it’s not that simple.
Some school administrators, and lawmakers, want filming fights to be illegal - but that would be unconstitutional.
Advocates say schools that discipline students for filming fights, including calling the police, are feeding teens into the school-to-prison pipeline.
They also argue that our culture glamorizes violence and fighting - MMA fights draw huge crowds and millions of dollars, for example, and websites like World Star Hip Hop and apps like Snapchat get millions of views posting fights. Why wouldn’t teens pick up on this?
There are more risks to filming fights, though - teens CAN get arrested for posting fight videos. Bystanders can also be in danger - a teen in North Carolina was SHOT while filming a fight.
There isn’t a simple answer to this issue, since fighting among young people remains common, and smartphones make filming easier than ever.
All we can hope is that parents talk to their children about the issue, its risks, and that another tragedy like Khaseen Morris’ doesn’t happen again.