Katie Phillips
Asst. News Editor

While fights sometimes take place in the hallways of South, the administration and faculty take measures to ensure the safety of South students.

At the beginning of the school year, students were informed of the rules to prevent fights from taking place during the school day. Other efforts exist to control the issue.

“We have Peer Mediation to try to resolve issues,” James Torsiello, dean of students, said. “We have a whole counseling staff that sometimes gets involved with trying to resolve issues and discrepancies between kids. We have supervision in the halls.”

Peer Mediation is a club that mediates arguments between students after the situations have occurred. Students who show signs of continuous anger towards one another are referred to Peer Mediation, often by a third party, for further counseling.

“The mediation itself is a conference-type session where the two conflicting people or groups share their stories with the student mediators and work out a solution to their conflict or clear up a misunderstanding in a peaceful manner,” senior Joanna Sokolowski, the senior public officer of Peer Mediation, said.

“They are told that if any misbehavior continues, there will be further consequences. Issues are documented, families are contacted, sometimes the cops are involved, [and] so we try to be as thorough as we can,” Torsiello said.

Torsiello explained that when the police are involved, it generally means that the event was more serious than others, and that punishment by the school would be more severe.

Even if each case is handled on an individual basis, students involved in physical fights are typically suspended by the school.

At the scene of a fight, any adult present is responsible for breaking it
up. This includes the teachers, deans, and paraprofessionals.
Even with school faculty on the lookout, fights have appeared to increase over the course of the school year.

“I think there is a possibility that fights have increased because the number of Peer Mediation referrals has increased,” Sokolowski said. However, this perception has not been confirmed.