Video of girl fight found on Internet
By Laura Collins
Published in News on April 23, 2010 1:46 PM
What prompted the fight is still unknown, but at least five Eastern Wayne Middle School students were allegedly involved in an altercation during which at least two adults appear to somehow be involved. However, Goldsboro police Sgt. Chad Calloway said Friday that no charges were being filed in the incident.
The fight among the girls, which police confirmed Friday took place on April 8 at Herman Park, was videotaped and posted online to http:bdyoutube.com on April 12 -- a YouTube type Web page apparently based in Bangladesh and likely used because of its looser content standards.
A mother of an Eastern Wayne Middle School student, who asked not to be named, said the video is not only disturbing but also a reason for concern. She said her child heard about the video and fight from other students at school.
Warning: This video contains explicit language and mild violence
But as of Wednesday, school principal Catherine Eubanks said neither the video nor the fight had not made its way back to her. Concerning fighting and bullying in general, she said there is not a problem at the school.
"There's not a lot of bullying at the school. If there are two kids or a group of kids not getting along, we resolve the conflict," she said.
While there are no classes, seminars or lessons on bullying at the school, Ms. Eubanks said school officials have a popular peer mediation program and occasionally she or the guidance counselor will talk to a class about bullying, if necessary.
Since the fight happened outside of school, Ms. Eubanks said the only way it would affect the middle school is if it's interfering with the school environment.
"And I haven't heard anything about it," she said.
Wayne County Public Schools spokesperson Ken Derksen also said the situation is out of the district's hands since it does not have a policy for off-campus fighting. He added that school officials will cooperate with local law enforcement, if necessary.
"We take a very hard stance against bullying. We have policies and procedures in place and obviously bullying is not something that we condone," he said, but then added that there's no evidence from the video that the fight has anything to do with bullying.
"We don't even know if these are our students," he said.
On Friday, Calloway issued a press release explaining that the situation caught on camera occurred after one of the adults in the video had already been in contact with 911 emergency communications regarding a large crowd of juveniles at her residence, which she then followed to Herman Park. He said that officers had already responded to the scene once, before the fight began, and that by the time they returned the juveniles had dispersed. He added that no charges will be filed. However, no further information about the incident, including the identities of either the teens or the adults, was available. Continue following the News-Argus for more on this story.