My First Real Girl Fight

So apparently I lead a very sheltered "school life."  I've never once witnessed a fight as a teacher.  I used to have a baseball bat with me in the hallway of one school I worked for because my classroom was around the corner and that was where rival gang members liked to fight each other.  They knew I had the bat and they stayed out of my corner of the world.

This morning I was standing in the copy room with another teacher and we started hearing this chant (by boys by the way) yelling "Hit the bitch!".  I looked at my colleague and made some type of comment about boys disrespecting young ladies with their language when all of a sudden I saw two girls throwing punches at each other.  The other teacher yelled "Black Button!" which is the button in every classroom that is used to call security.  I, for some reason walked right over to the fight.

Now let's pause here.  These were two girls who LOOK tough.  I can't really describe it but they walk around school (especially by the one that started it) with a look that says "Look at me wrong and I will mess you up."  I'm unfamiliar with the laws of teachers getting in the middle of fights and I want to keep my job so I did NOT intervene.

So I stood there screaming at the top of my lungs for help while yelling at the girls to "cut it out".  I was about to intervene when I saw blood.  HELLS NO.  First of all, I like my face and I'd like to keep it that way.  Secondly, I refuse to compromise my health and risk of disease by getting in the middle of two thugish girls who are probably fighting over a boy.  Not to mention this was a SERIOUS fight.  We're talking banging each other's heads on concrete a possible broken nose and lots of hair pulling.  There was seriously blood everywhere.   I've never claimed to be a hero and that's not how I want to gain that status...

Of course all my students made fun of me because I didn't do anything physical to break it up.  I looked at them all and said seriously (pointing to my face), "Do you really think I want to mess this up?  Not to mention breaking a nail."  But in all seriousness I simply told them I wasn't about to get involved in their violence.  It's not my job.  I stood there, called for help and made sure no one else got involved.

I am officially scarred by today's events.  I don't think I'll ever get the image of those two girls going at it like professional wrestlers out of my head ever again.  I think I'm going to need even MORE therapy after today...