Violent videos on social media show fights between students at East Lee County High School

Violent fights breaking out in schools are being posted on social media. This is happening at East Lee County High School in Lehigh Acres.

The school district is aware of multiple social media accounts posting these fight videos online. They said any students involved in the fights, including those recording them, will face disciplinary action even if they weren’t identified when the fight happened.

One parent said he knew that this was becoming a trend, but he didn’t realize how bad it had become until he saw it for himself. “This isn’t new to anybody. But it’s getting worse and worse,” said Juan Salguero.

Salguero’s son attends East Lee County High School. He says his son has been a target for bullies. “The kids prevented him from leaving because they wanted him to keep fighting. He looked over and saw a few other kids with their phones, and they were streaming,” said Salguero.

Salguero said he was shocked, not only that he found the video online, but by how easy it was to locate. “I literally looked up the school’s [Instagram] page. And when you do a search for it, you get the school’s IG, and right below it, it had three to four fighting pages dedicated to that school alone. To which I was shocked to see my son’s fight right there in plain sight for everybody to see.”

The School District of Lee County said these fight video social media pages are not unique to East Lee County High School. They said disciplinary action comes to those seen fighting, those who record the fights, and students who refuse to leave the area around a fight. They said the videos are regularly reported to Instagram.

“If they get taken down on one page, they’ll rename it something else and have it up and running within 10, 15 minutes. A lot of those fights have been reposted because they’ve already been reported,” Salguero said.

Salguero said parents need to know if their child is being bullied or if they’re the ones instigating it. “For all the parents out there, you need to have these conversations with your kids. A lot of kids get bullied in school, and they will not bring it home,” said Salguero.

The school district said staff responds as quickly as possible to any reported fights. There are also two school resource officers at the school in addition to a video surveillance system. They say fights on campus will not be tolerated.