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Monday, August 1, 2011

PHS student 'fight' video logs 306,000 views in one day


Screenshot from video website shows 306,636 views in first day.

A tipster send a link to a video of a supposed fight between two students at Plainfield High School posted to a website called www.worldstarhiphop.com/.

I am embedding the video below. Note that it was posted on the website yesterday, and as of early Monday morning had already had more than 306,000 views.

But I have one question for you: Does this look like a real fight?

The poster (Facebook profile here) suggests the teacher is somehow at fault for not being present. But if you consider the video is less than a minute long, there could be an explanation for kids being in the room without a teacher that doesn't leave the teacher at fault.

In any event, I'll bet videos like this won't be happening with Otis Brown in command of the starship come September.







-- Dan Damon [follow]

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15 comments:

Anonymous said...

First of all Dan, last I checked the records show that Otis Brown IS the principal of the school. This is on HIS watch and the watch of the Grand Slam Team and Ana Belin Pyles.

This is a disgrace! The fight didn't just happen it developed without supervision. Where was the teacher?

If the student on the receiving end had died who would be accountable.

This is another great case for NOT sending students to the district schools.

The nation now knows how terrible our schools are.

Good luck to Bilal. We didn't deserve him.

Rebecca Williams said...

This is an extremely disheartening trend, Dan--meaning, the videotaping (with real or not) of vicious acts of violence by youth, fights, cursing, and so forth. Apparently, looking at "girl fights" is even more titillating--there is a voyeuristic, almost pornographic element to watching violent fights among kids (not this one, but others I have seen), and the crowd often incites them to go even further.

Since the two boys who are fighting can clearly be seen in this video, both will be at the very least suspended, if not expelled, with a serious mark on their (what we used to call) "permanent records." Whether it was a real fight or not, this is NOT horseplay, and should not be treated lightly. The disruption of the class for this takes away from our kids, who need to be able to succeed academically. Sick of it.

Rebecca

OB3 said...

terrible.. not sure if he's seen this, but I'm sending this to my dad now. There's no magic solution, but i agree that it's less likely stuff like this will be happening w him there. Thanks for the post.

Anonymous said...

LOL 6:23AM you've been very, very busy. Sorry but school is out so HOW can OB, ABP and GSLAM be responsible? Such a hater! You are funny though. Try again. But, wait first cover your ward then cover the job you abandoned.

Anonymous said...

I agree with OB3..OB can't do it alone and it won't be changed overnight, but I guarantee there will be consequences for these types of situations from him. It is also unfortunate that whether or not it was a set-up, how sad that kids can pressure and orchestrate something like this for kicks and then post it on FB. I can only imagine that there's a new sheriff in town and there are always those who don't want to get on board and see the school succeed because they have a different agenda for coming to school. I remember the last time he was in charge and the kids rebelled the first month and by the time Oct. came around and they saw how safe school could be, they were thanking him! I wish him well with this endeavor, I couldn't be happier that he's in charge and so many people are willing to work along with him. jbandomer

linda said...

After viewing this video, i understand why residents don't want to send their kids to the schools in this city. Everyone keeps saying "where was the teacher?" well, what about the parents in all this? If these kids can't be trusted to be left alone for the 60 seconds it took for this to happen, maybe we need to be questioning the parents morals and responsibities regarding the behavior of their kids. Although this appears to have started as horseplay, it's obvious it turned serious very quickly and even if the teacher was there how do you know they would have gotten involved. Now adays since these kids don't seem to respect anything or anybody, the teacher would probably be thinking many things before getting involved. 1-the kids could have turned on the teacher. 2-the teacher might have gotten disciplined for intervening. 3-the parents of these kids would probably end of suing the teacher for putting their hands on the child regardless of the situation. so I can understand why even if the teacher was there they may not have wanted to get involved. These are HS kids for heaven's sake, can they not act like responsible young people for 30 seconds alone in their classrooms? In this PC world when someone tries to discipline or bring some type of order to these kids when they are out of control, the parents want to sue them or fight them. So is it any wonder this is going on in our school and not just in Plainfield, but all over. The kids there that want to get an education simply can't bc all the energy and resources go to these kids who act and behave like this video depicts and then these kids become targets because there is nothing the school can do about. Until we get prayer and discipline back in the school this is what we can expect. It's a crying shame what this town has come to. I can't wait to get out!

Rob said...

The aggressor is obvious, so lets go for the logical explanation..society didn't give them enough to make themselves feel good..it's our fault.

OB3 said...

Dear anonymous... Mr. Brown IS the principal as of a few weeks ago. This incident obviously took place during the school year (I doubt the kids would have had on hats, jackets or scarves anytime in the last few months) so this is on HIS watch about as much as the Iraq/Afghanistan wars are on President Obama's. Nice try.

One of the larger issues here is what Ms Williams brought up. This trend of videotaped bullying/fighting is a problem the world over. You can go on youtube and do a search and find scores of videos of kids fighting. Many of them much worse than this one and often on school grounds. That issue, and most of the issues our children face, can be traced back to a lack of role models/mentors in our communities.

Speaking of which, there are plenty of opportunities to volunteer as a mentor, tutor, coach, etc at PHS. I'm sure they'd love your help. I doubt you'd be able to do it anonymously though....

Anonymous said...

Dan,

This is ridiculous. The Board needs to really look into this.

Where is the teachers? Why is nobody doing something about this?

The school is very untable now and for anyone to think that Otis Brown as one person change this.

The community is in shambles. The city is in shambles. The is in shambles.

Plainfield has gone back to the dogs.

Anonymous said...

So now will people stop thinking Recreation is the be all and end all? How about some yelling about a better school system?

Dottie Gutenkauf said...

One really awful thing about this is that none of the other students intervened--just sat there and watched. Was this supposed to be some kind of "entertainment"? Was it really PHS? Was the whole thing staged for somebody who "just happened" to have a videocamera ready to go? Ye gods!

Dan said...

Wow!

Unless someone can ID any of these kids, how do we know it was PHS?

And while Otis is technically the principal as of now, who knows when this was taken?

I vote for it being a staged 'fight', and a PHS teacher told me of having to put some kids on notice who were getting ready to do a stunt like this in her classroom.

Can someone tell me if all classrooms are locked unless a teacher is present? If not, then who knows a classroom wasn't 'borrowed' for this production?

No one even picked up on how many views the video had, which is now at 372,834 as of 10:15PM Monday -- that's a third of a MILLION views folks.

It's part of today's youth culture, like Hula hoops and doing the 'Mashed Potato' once were.

What's different is the subject matter, or is it???

Anonymous said...

WHY?WHY?WHY? If it is staged, we have some terrorists in this town who live to only promote Propaganda.

Anonymous said...

It is very sad that our youth think it's cool to be violent when and where ever they please then video it!!! Have we as a society gone mad and excepted this behavior as normal! I agree with one of the posters yes youtube is full of fights and other nonsense thats allowed to be posted.... BUT WHY DO WE AS a SOCIETY TOLERATE THIS VIOLENT BEHAVIOR!!!!

Anonymous said...

this is in the 9th grade building, probably this year since there are some "sophomores" and "juniors" in the class. the principal was bilal at the time.. i dont know whose class it is but it is a 9th grade building room