Our American School Fighting rules are messed up

You wanna know a crappy way of starting your 17th year in life? Getting a bloody nose.

Why?

What happened was that some people at school knew it was my birthday, and this one dude that I did not like decided to punch me in the back of my head. So I turn around, and took a step back, and launched a kick so hard, that I kicked him down the steps, I hit his stomach. He then gets back up and punches me in my nose, and I had a bad nosebleed.

So, he got 8 days for assualt, and I got 4.


But that's not the point I'm making.

Back some time ago way before my time, the school rules were that if a person instigates a fight, and the other one fights back, only the person who instigated the fight got punished.

Why is it that this all changed to now that if a person responds to an instigator, then that person goes down with them?

My general thoughts on fighting is that each person is well and capable of backing down. And countering back has just as much tendancy to get another counter. But the person instigating the fight does have a substantially larger amount of blame to be held.
I think self-defense is normally only suitable in life-threatening situations.
But that's just me.

I agree with Chaos on this. Fighting back isn't something you shouldn't be able to do. Someone attacks you, you defend yourself. It's a very simple concept.

Whether you attack back should be up to the situation. If some weird bully starts hitting you, there's no real need to fight back, except for dodging and blocking the attacks, unless the teacher actually sees it and won't do anything about it.

If someone attacks you and has weapons such as a knife or gun, I'd say its pretty common to fight back.

No, like I said, defending yourself is basic logic. With a fist or a knife, it doesn't matter. You're well within your rights to do so.

Looks like i have the same problem or i should say we...

E.G: Each time somebody punches me... i punch back then the teacher comes and "Stop you two fighting" "but he started" (like a child) <Teacher> "Both of you are punished" (i think).

God i hate that totally.

It's pretty much the same as our policy with flaming. If someone flames you, and you flame him back, we're going to ban both people. However, if someone flames you, and you just ignore it, he goes down and you stay here. If someone attacks you in real life, just get them off of you and back off.

Of course, I find the best policy is to just try not to make people hate you enough to the point they'd be willing to attack you.

FuriousFox said:

It's pretty much the same as our policy with flaming. If someone flames you, and you flame him back, we're going to ban both people. However, if someone flames you, and you just ignore it, he goes down and you stay here. If someone attacks you in real life, just get them off of you and back off.

Of course, I find the best policy is to just try not to make people hate you enough to the point they'd be willing to attack you.

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Well, I didn't make people hate me enough, just him and I hated each other, and I stayed away from him.

But Flame Wars and Physical Violence are two different things, like apples and oranges. If someone just started to kick your behind (you still got that swear rule here?) are you gonna run and tell a teacher? Most likely, at least here in Flint, the person kicking your rear might kick the teacher's rear while he/she's at it.

Flame Wars, you don't have to worry about that because no physical damage is being inflicted.

FuriousFox has it. Retribution is only going to lead to more serious injuries. The system in place, while it SUCKS not to punch that guy back in the kisser, is in the school's long-term interest. It's set up in such a way that it's not in your interest to fight back, and if you don't, that's better for the school's lawyers.

Again, if someone pulls a weapon, then you're in a totally different situation, and there are times when it's better to fight back anyways and get in trouble just to make a point, but the reality is that for the school, it's ALWAYS better for them if you back down.

Mystic said:

FuriousFox has it. Retribution is only going to lead to more serious injuries. The system in place, while it SUCKS not to punch that guy back in the kisser, is in the school's long-term interest. It's set up in such a way that it's not in your interest to fight back, and if you don't, that's better for the school's lawyers.

Again, if someone pulls a weapon, then you're in a totally different situation, and there are times when it's better to fight back anyways and get in trouble just to make a point, but the reality is that for the school, it's ALWAYS better for them if you back down.

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For THEM though, because you can handle a black eye here or a broken bone there, they don't feel anything.

I'm not saying I wouldn't have punched him back to make a point, I'm just saying that's WHY that system is in place, and it makes PERFECT sense when you think about it. I got into a few of those, however, most of the time I _did_ refrain from punching him back, and only the other guy got in trouble. It just wasn't worth the effort, and honestly, refusing to act like you care frequently makes him MORE pissed off than punching him in the stomach ever will.

Mystic said:

I'm not saying I wouldn't have punched him back to make a point, I'm just saying that's WHY that system is in place, and it makes PERFECT sense when you think about it. I got into a few of those, however, most of the time I _did_ refrain from punching him back, and only the other guy got in trouble. It just wasn't worth the effort, and honestly, refusing to act like you care frequently makes him MORE pissed off than punching him in the stomach ever will.

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I tried that, and it dosen't seem to work, if anything, it makes them want to do it more to provoke a reaction out of you.

Thats true. Why not just punch them and get it over with, instead of getting punched more than you expected?

Chaos the Hedgehog said:

I tried that, and it dosen't seem to work, if anything, it makes them want to do it more to provoke a reaction out of you.

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Then they'll punch you enough times to get expelled, and you'll never see them again.

You could also try the other tactic if you're fast. Hit and run. Works great depending on the target.

Or, if it keeps happening and you keep getting in trouble for it, you could go ahead and strike first. You get in trouble anyways.

Honestly, I always managed to avoid that kind of conflict, and my solution to the problem would be to simply get an administrator to deal with it. It's not like there weren't always a ton of witnesses.

Luckily for me, the students at my school don't pick on others like that. I don't mess with them, and they usually don't mess with me. Most of the time that they fight, it's just some kind of joke or that they're playing around with each other. Still, at the times that I do get involved (however rare that may be), I just ignore them because fighting back isn't part of my philosophy. Fire against fire _obviously_ never gets anywhere.

Well, my school is pretty good so I never hear of fights. Plus I'm nice to everyone. Never been in a fight before. I suggest that if you are hit, you respond with "Nice, hurt me for a day or two, now you have a suspension. Suspension = permanent record. Permanent record= Colleges will hate you. Colleges Hate you = no job. No job = no money for you. No money for you = You'll be a bum drug addict, until you are so poor that you can't even afford your self induced destruction. Great job, break my nose, but you just shattered your life."

Well, if that's the case, looks like colleges won't be accepting me, as I already got kicked out for throwing a desk at someone who was trying to bully me physically.

A DESK? Haha, that reminds me of something. Once, a year ago, I was annoying this really annoying kid that basically annoys everyone else in music class. There was a substitute, and we were just watching Drumline. Ok, so since I've mastered origami and aerogami (paper folding and airplane folding) I managed to steal some paper from a printer nearby (because theres a computer in every room) and make a couple of planes, most of them different, although I do like one particular model very much. I throw them, and they all hit him (because I've practiced...) and he got pissed.

He takes out his pen, opens it, and starts spit balling me, and a couple of other people that were involved. I throw EVEN MORE paper airplanes, and the rest spit ball back. Then he gets really pissed. The kid starts throwing his own poorly made planes at me. So of course, I find it funny, so I throw my music notebook (1 subject, spiral) at him (it's torn a bit) and it hits him. It's funny because it didnt really do anything, it just sorta touched him, because the aerodynamics of a notebook only go so far.

Then, the kid throws a chair at me. I'm like, wtf? So yeah, it hits me, but it's a chair (plastic), and I basically caught it, but I pretended (pretent?) to fall down to get him in trouble, and the period was over, so I grab my stuff, and the next thing I know is this kid starts punching me. He's so weak, my gosh, that I just walked on by while he did it. It started to get annoying so I shoved him away from me. He came back. Pretty soon I flipped him over (he was punching me on my back, so...) and he is hurt, I think, and he runs to the principals office (long way from the music room). He was crying the whole time by the way.

So he tells, but instead of me getting in trouble at all (I just went to my locker, got my stuff, and waited at the door of the principals office) he ended up getting 2 months detention and him and I needed to go to peer mediation (sorta like the school anger management councel). In mediation, I just sorta went, "Oh gosh, can't I just get suspension and leave already?". The only reason all of this could fit into one period is because it was the final period for my school. So...

Long story short, if you bother someone, just don't throw fists, because it's BAD. Don't call me a bully either, as I don't usually bother anyone, but he bothers EVERYONE, so I figured, whatever.

Oh, and Ultimate,

Awesome. Just plain awesome.

Long story short, if you're going to bother someone, just don't throw fists. That turns it into a PROBLEM, not to mention someone could get hurt.

Don't start calling me a bully either, because I don't usually bother anyone, but he bothers EVERYONE, so I figured, whatever.

Oh, and Ultimate, that was pretty cool.

Heh, if you think that is stupid, listen to this. I got suspended for some kid taking my shoe and throwing it away, it was considered a classroom disruption. What kind of disruption is that?

I seriously don't get the point of making rules on this. People are always beating up others in my school. There must be something done for this.


OFFTOPIC: Why the heck does everyone have to make names off of others? I"m the only Chaos damnit.