ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — Recently, St. Louis has held the spotlight regarding videos surfacing online of fights involving students both on and off campus.
In January, a 65-year-old teacher was assaulted on campus by a student while other students watched and recorded on camera.
The Normandy High School teacher Sheryl Rogers said "I was just thinking, the students that were standing around, nobody intervened to help me. Nobody helped me,” Rogers said while fighting tears. "She kept hitting me and when I fell to the floor, she just kicked me."
Then in March, a video of two Hazelwood East High School students fighting off campus went viral sparking national attention. One teen ended up in the hospital and the other in a juvenile detention center.
The superintendent of the Jennings School District Dr. Paula Knight said, "It's sad to see and it just lets us know and it lets me know the value and the importance of keeping children safe."
Knight aims to be proactive in his district through many efforts.
"There was a time when cellphones being able to record that just wasn't an option. And it it is now. And social media posts. And as I tell the team I tell my senior cabinet, we all love a story until we become a headline," he said.
Jennings, like many districts, has a policy to prohibit cell phone use on campus.
5 On Your Side previously reported their campuses' introduction to Yondr Pouches, a place for phones to stay during the school day.
"We're going into year three of the pouches. and while it was met with a level of resistance, I do have parents and quite frankly some students who will say Dr. Knight I just want to make sure that these pouches are staying in place so that we all can concentrate on being in school and being safe," Knight said.
Under the school's policy, signed by parents, students can be pulled into a conference, suspended for fighting, attending a fight, or having their phones confiscated for certain offenses.
St. Louis University criminology professor Kenya Brumfield-Young spoke about the consequences of recording off campus.
"Missouri does not have a duty to intervene law so there's nothing that says if you're there and it's an incident that somehow you have to intervene or you're culpable at some level."
Currently you can record a school fight and you will not get in trouble if you do.
However, these two academics agreed that what is captured on the lens can last a lifetime, referencing future job opportunities.
"You may be 12, 13, 14, 15. But these recordings. They never go away," Knight said.
Brumfield-Young highlighted that viewers only see a snapshot of a situation being recorded with no context.
She added that young people's "desire to have a heavily viewed or viral video" is a reason for recording. She also talked about the desensitization towards certain incidents and young people not thinking a fight can cause bodily harm, or long-term complications.
"How can we actually address these things that lead up to the events being recorded? How do we address that to the point where there's nothing to record?" Brumfield-Young said.
While school brawls have been an issue inside school walls and in neighborhoods for years, the criminology professor noted how media like World Star and eventually social media further spread the content, sparking both viewership among those who do not agree with the behavior and those who watch for entertainment.