Two Crockett Middle School seventh-grade boys were in a fight on Wednesday that Principal Maribel Aranda and ECISD Police Officer Larissa Hernandez think could have been pre-planned in order to post it to a social media site.
The incident occurred after school in front of the campus and Aranda said the video that is going around doesn’t show the whole thing.
Hernandez said it started with the two boys talking, pushing and walking away and then the “crowd just … swarms them.”
Aranda said the other students spurred the two boys on. She added that the boys might have walked away if no one said anything.
Although it looks like one of the boys in the video is having a seizure, Aranda said he was crying.
“… I can tell you that his nose was bleeding. But no, he got up fine. The nurse checked him. The parent was contacted. … He was fine. He was responsive. He talked to the other officer that was here. He’s here today,” Aranda said. “He was just crying; certainly understandable. But no, he did not have a seizure. And that’s what it looked like … But no, he was crying. … He cried pretty hard.”
She added that the other boy was not at school Thursday.
Aranda said sometimes the fights are staged.
“When kids are almost getting into a fight, I bring them in and I hear that there may be a fight and I talked to both of them. And I say, well, did she tell you that she wanted to fight you? Do you even know the person … the boy or the girl? Well, not really so who told you? Well, my friend … So it’s always somebody telling them something. …,” Aranda said.
She added that the first thing that comes out when there’s a fight are the cameras.
“And that’s exactly what they want. They want you to give them a show and they’re the ones not in trouble, you are,” Aranda said.
Hernandez said she thinks there are social media pages for every school where students record fights and post them anonymously.
Aranda said they sometimes stage fights. Some fights happen in the rest rooms where they have 10-second fights and there are no cameras.
“If we do get the video and we find them there’s consequences. We don’t have a camera there, for sure, but if somebody brings it to us, we do deal with it,” Aranda said.
On the administrative end, Aranda said there are consequences, which could be anything from suspension all the way to alternative education.
Hernandez said for the police, it depends on their investigation. If it’s a mutual combat fight, they will both be cited for disorderly conduct fighting.
“They’ll have to go to Municipal Court and go through their Teen Court process. If it’s an assault, if it’s a Class C, the same thing; go to Municipal Court and go from there,” Hernandez said.
“But if it’s a Class A or above they actually get arrested and … they’re disposed of through the Ector County Youth Center,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez said the officer that was on campus Wednesday is conducting an investigation.
In the State of Texas, Hernandez said, you are criminally liable at 10 years old.
Hernandez said incidents like this happen after spring break when it’s warm, everybody gets antsy and it’s near the end of school.
“We see more kids trying to get in trouble, like she said, when it gets hot and (they) know that the end of school is near,” Aranda said.
Sometimes the students getting in trouble are ones that never have.
“Sometimes it’s just little things. But sometimes it’s like a fight and so we deal with it. We let the students know there’s consequences and consequences, not just administratively, but it could be legally.”
“Those actions and consequences can ruin your future,” Aranda said. “I know they’re still young and they’re learning, but I hate that sometimes maybe something like this can ruin the future that they may have because they didn’t think about it, or they thought it was funny to be on one of their websites.”
Hernandez said fights on video have always been “a thing,” but students now have so much access to social media.
She said there are pages like Crockett Fights, Odessa or Permian high school fights.
“You have all these pages where an anonymous person sets it up, and then people submit it through direct message, and then it gets posted on this site. You can report them to Instagram for bullying and harassment, or violence, or whatever and hope that they get taken down because it violates their community standards, but they won’t,” Hernandez said.
Aranda said a lot of negative actions start with a post and somebody says something on some type of social media and it happens outside of school, but then it gets into the school.
During the day, Aranda said students are not allowed to be on their phones. “But that does not mean that they’re not. They’re pretty bright. They find a way,” she added.
If they are seen with their phones, the phones are taken away and the parent has to pick it up.
“Everybody has a phone now, so it’s very difficult,” Aranda said.
Hernandez said parents need to report to their child’s principal or their child’s campus officer that their child is having an issue at school.
Aranda said the school does a lot of mediation.
She added that they do stay-away agreements.
“… We bring him in, and sometimes they’re still mad at each other, which is fine, but so we do stay-away agreements. If they violate it, then there’s consequences. We’re doing everything that we can to avoid them getting in trouble because we want them here. They’re not learning if they’re suspended. So it’s important for them to be here, but … the drama gets in the way of their learning sometimes, too,” Aranda said.
Crockett has about 1,100 students and one officer.
Hernandez is based at Odessa High School, but was at Crockett Thursday because the regular officer, Matt Gonzales, is in training this week.
