Students fighting amongst themselves at school may be nothing new, but people filming the altercations and posting them to social media has brought teen violence to the fore more than ever.
One recent incident in Barrie, which happened on May 29, involved a teen being attacked by what appears to be six different kids behind a variety store in the vicinity of Bear Creek Secondary School in the city's south end. It had been shared on Facebook, but has since been removed.
According to Barrie police, the incident occurred just before noon and involved five youths between the ages of 15 and 17.
A 15-year-old was charged with assault, while the other teens who were involved were not charged.
There has also been “frightening” physical altercations happening regularly at Orillia Secondary School (OSS) this year, according to students at the school.
Multiple videos obtained by OrilliaMatters show students engaging in physical altercations in a school washroom, the front foyer, and at the nearby Tim Hortons location on Westmount Drive in Orillia.
Village Media has also reported on students from Collingwood Collegiate Institute and Our Lady of the Bay Catholic High School fighting in an intersection between the two Collingwood schools.
According to survey results collected by the local school board, about 23 per cent of elementary students and 32 per cent of high school students in Simcoe County report not feeling safe at school.
The 2023-24 school climate survey completed by students attending public schools in Simcoe County was provided to trustees on June 12, and shows that nearly one in four elementary students and one in three secondary students said they don’t feel safe at school.
The victim of the recent Barrie attack, whose name OrilliaMatters has agreed to withhold, said no one came to his aid.
“Teens fighting nowadays (is) completely different than it used to be … nobody tried to intervene and help. Everyone was just recording and yelling," he said.
In the video posted to Facebook, a large group of teens can be seen gathered closely around the melee, filming the attack with their phones. He can be seen trying to defend himself against several kids who are delivering several punches and kicks to his head and body in quick succession.
They also continued to beat him while he was on the ground.
If there is abuse, if there are threats going on or if there is emotional lack of security, kids don’t do very well, according to Dr. Robert Meeder, pediatrician and medical director of family, child and youth mental health at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care in Penetanguishene.
“Schools need to be a safe place and this is true for anybody — if you don’t feel safe, then your mind shifts to a more stressed mode of operation, and that is not amenable to learning,” said Meeder, who was a doctor in Orillia prior to getting hired at Waypoint.
If students are constantly scanning for threats and worrying that they're going to get hurt, or someone is going to say or do something that is upsetting, then their ability to learn declines, Meeder said.
“Studies show that when you are under a lot of stress, your IQ literally drops,” he added.
Meeder wonders if the rise in violence is a perception issue, or if there's data showing there's an quantified rise in violence.
“I think (fighting) has always been part of the high school experience. I remember when I was in high school, fights happened quite frequently and I think, to a large extent, it still happens. Although, I think the nature of them probably has changed,” he said.
Teens are now constantly surrounded by cellphones and online videos, with everything getting documented and shared rapidly and quite frequently.
“So, the impact of a fight certainly is much wider than say 10 or 20 years ago,” Meeder said. “It happened in a corner of a school and few people knew about it, except for those directly around the area, and then it just became rumour from there.
“Now, there is actual video documentation that gets shared to almost the entire school body within minutes," he added. "And I think that changes the sense of safety as well. Suddenly, everybody thinks that there are fights happening all the time, everywhere, whereas, that sense might be a little bit skewed by the fact it gets shared so widely.”
Meeder believes that society, in general, has made us feel a lot less safe, “even when statistically, our city and our neighbourhoods are actually safer.”
Simcoe County Ontario Secondary School Teacher’s Federation bargaining unit president Jen Hare recently said it was obvious why students aren’t feeling as safe in schools as they once were.
“I think it’s fundamentally because they are seeing an increase in violent behaviour from fellow students,” Hare told Village Media. “They are seeing their trusted adults stressed to the max trying to address student behaviour and possibly not getting support from administration. Young people are very intuitive.
“It’s reaching a boiling point,” she added.
