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Is recording school fights ok?

Yes: Here are some responses from readers who believe it is morally acceptable to record school fights.

“I’ve heard people say, “And the students just stood there recording,” suggesting they SHOULD have been helping in some way to end the fight. However, I do not believe it is every bystander’s moral imperative to put themselves in harm’s way to stop a fight that has nothing to do with them. I would encourage bystanders to tell an adult or get help, but that is separate from the recording issue. In some ways, I think a natural consequence of getting involved in a fight is that you will likely end up being recorded, and so that may discourage the behavior altogether. POSTING the video feels like more of a morally questionable issue than the actual recording of it.”

“After the fight, there can be a certain amount of “X said, Y said” or one-sided narratives of what happened. Even admitting that the recordings pretty much never capture the lead-up to the fight, a visual record of what happened can still be helpful later in terms of figuring out who gets held responsible and what needs to happen next to make things right.”

“To record a school fight because you want to post it on the Internet in order to get a lot of views is immoral, because it takes advantage of others who would, whether by participating in the fight or by being near it and being hit by a stray punch or kick, get hurt. However, recording a school fight to provide adults with the recording so they can figure out what happened and assess what consequences need to occur is moral, because it ensures that we can figure out the details and assess who needs to see consequences.”

No: Here are some responses from readers who did not think it was morally acceptable to record school fights.

“It feeds into the twisted idea that entertainment should take the form of people genuinely (not scripted/acting) beating each other up over literally nothing, such as the fight that occurred recently. Entertainment should not come in such forms, period. It also ends up getting people who record fights to think that they’ll get some sort of clout from doing it (i.e. views, likes, whatever metric systems social media platforms use) which in it of itself is stupid at best because it’s never worth those numbers.”

“No, it’s not okay to record school fights. People who record it are bystanders, approving of the fight, and want to capture the fight to show it to others (even if they don’t post it on social media). This gives them attention from people who haven’t seen the fight. I would have said “sometimes” because the video can act as evidence to be reviewed by authorities and then deleted when not needed. Unfortunately, I feel like most people don’t have this intention.”

“Recording fights can be a huge violation of privacy to the people in the fight. We don’t know the circumstances of the fight so recording it doesn’t seem right.”

Sometimes: Here are some responses from readers who thought it was sometimes morally acceptable to record school fights.

“So many things are recorded these days, and it’s nigh impossible for any sort of event to occur without there being some form of video evidence. Having said video evidence for the sake of showing what happened exactly during the altercation is fine in my mind.”

“The idea of pulling out one’s phone as an instinct when something like that occurs seems absurd at first—there are a lot of debates over what is morally right to do when these happen and pulling out a phone isn’t at the top of what should be done. however, first hand video recordings of things like these can be important to debrief that happened afterwards, so that everyone is on the same page.”

“I personally don’t think people should be sending videos around especially if they don’t know the person. I feel like people just post it to acknowledge that they were there or to get “clout” which is just dumb in my opinion. and it also just shows how so many people are bystanders and would rather film it than help end the fight (even if it’s their friends which is even worse).”

“While recording fights does help keep people accountable for their actions that break rules and cause disruption, for the most part it feels like when students record fights, it’s mostly for laughs or to have something “fun” on their Snapchat story. Doing so only encourages the behavior of the people involved in the fight. It can even get more people involved and at risk of being injured.”

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Is posting/sending videos of school fights on social media morally acceptable?

Yes: Here are some responses from readers who believe it is morally acceptable to post/record videos of school fights on social media.

“Having video evidence shows us how ineffective the security guards in our school are. I myself have seen several fights throughout my years here, and almost never have security guards actually stepped in to help until things escalate. I think back at the fight that happened a few months prior, where a student had to be knocked on the ground before the security guards did anything more than any other student; just watch. And in the more recent fight, it seems ridiculous to many of us that Dr. Edwards himself had to step in. Where were the guards then? For the most part, they seem to be more concerned with catching students in the hallway for going to the bathroom and guarding doors in the cafeteria than stopping actual physical violence or even catching kids doing drugs/vaping.”

“Not everyone gets to see the fights and that’s the fun part of high school.”

“Honestly recording the fights can stop more rumors and false information about the fight spreading. Usually actually having the recording instead of making up even more lies about the situation can benefit the people involved since rumors tend to paint many innocent people in a bad light.”

“While some people do it just for clout, it does allow the larger student body to see what happened; which people are likely to resort to violence, which people to avoid, etc.”

No: Here are some responses from readers who did not think it was morally acceptable to post/send videos of school fights on social media.

“Because then it gets likes, comments, and questions to why the fight started and more and then before you know people across the country could see it and that’s just wrong because it’s not their business and then it creates more problems like people unfollowing or sending messages that hurt the person’s feelings who was in the fight and then it can get to the point where that person is to afraid or doesn’t want to go to school because of the fight and worried if other people might to hurt him or her so that’s why it’s not good to send videos of school fights it’s just wrong people don’t need to do that.”

“It’s not moral, because you’re destroying the school’s outsider POV, it destroys the students involved in the fight as well, to come home later, see themselves in a video fighting one another can cause them to have severe regrets. Morality is a tough subject, philosophically. Attempting to talk to teens about morals, all they have in their head, is fun, something that isn’t allowed in school, for example a physical fight, is an exhilarating experience for them, which they tend to prioritize over morals.”

“Once it comes to posting and sharing videos of school fights on social media, it’s gone far past the line of simply documenting the event for later speculation. At this point, students are taking advantage of a harmful situation just for clicks on their Instagrams, which isn’t right and shouldn’t be admirable.”

Sometimes: Here are some responses from readers who thought it was sometimes morally acceptable to post/send videos of school fights on social media.

“Thank you for composing this survey. It made me think for the first time about the exploitation of recording students when they are lashing out in distress and anguish. On the other hand, I do not want to assume all recordings of violence are destructive; when students have recorded racist or violent actions by adults in schools, they have provided proof that can provide justice and protect children. Recent examples include the recording of a California math teacher mocking Native Americans by imitating Native dancing and singing and the recording of SRO’s and security guards using inappropriate force on children in schools.”

“Generally speaking, I imagine most school fights occur for highly specific/personal reasons. It’s difficult to argue that posting/sending videos of these fights contributes to “the greater good,” except perhaps to raise awareness of the types of behavior that does sometimes occur in the halls of our schools. For example, if someone didn’t, couldn’t, or refused to believe that physical violence existed in public schools, a video displaying it might convince them otherwise. Still, the sender/poster should strongly consider what the consequences of posting the video would be. Will the students featured in the video get cyberbullied? Will posting the video add fuel to the fire? Posting/sending is definitely more morally questionable.”

“I selected sometimes because I am not sure if it’s okay or not. It can be helpful to bring attention to things like lack of security guards being around to break up the fight (a problem I learned about from a teacher who had to try and break up one of the fights themselves). But posting a fight just to post it seems pointless and unneeded, but once again it doesn’t break any rules (that I know of).”