BOULDER, Colo. - A group of Fairview High School students is suspected of organizing an after-school "fight club" that involved at least 12 students and as many as 60 spectators.
Boulder police spokeswoman Sarah Huntley said Thursday that 10 Fairview students, all boys, have been ticketed on suspicion of public brawling. Police think they were part of a club of friends that regularly met near the South Boulder Recreation Center for public "street fighting."
"Apparently, they were gathering in the field after school hours ... where they were engaging in fights," Huntley said. "They see this as sort of a recreational, spectator-type sport where they just wanted to go out and fight."
Huntley said police started receiving calls about the fights in February but were never able to catch anyone in the act -- until a female Fairview teacher broke up one of the fights March 6, which resulted in two teens being ticketed.
After the students were questioned by Fairview administrators, a police investigation led to eight more tickets being issued Thursday to students connected to the club, Huntley said. Police expect to ticket two more students they think were involved sometime today, she said.
"First and foremost, we're concerned about injuries to kids," Huntley said. "This was not supervised wrestling or boxing. ... This was basically street-fighting for fun."
All of the boys allegedly connected to the club range in age from 15 to 17, Huntley said. Their names are being withheld because they are minors, she said.
Boulder Valley School District spokesman Briggs Gamblin said school officials are working with police to investigate the club, which he said violates district policies against fighting even though the brawls took place off school property.
"The administrators are working to figure out who's involved and how to stop it," Gamblin said. "The feeling is there's several others they need to find."
Fairview Principal Donald Stensrud said he has taken some disciplinary actions against the students who have been cited, but he did not disclose details because of confidentiality rules. He said suspensions are a possibility.
"It's a blood sport," Stensrud said. "It is so antithetical to what we want our young men and women to do, and what we teach them to do."
He said an assistant principal at the school searched online sites including MySpace, YouTube and Facebook for video evidence of the fights but did not find anything.
Stensrud said school administrators will work with counselors, psychologists and sociologists to come up with an appropriate way to talk with the students who were spectators at the fights and all Fairview students about how to make better choices than cheering on a fight.
"I think we're going to figure out what to do as a building and how to address this," Stensrud said.
Stensrud sent an e-mail to Fairview parents Thursday explaining the situation and calling for parents to talk with their children about the fights.
"I assure you that FHS administrators, faculty and staff are working along with the Boulder police and our school resource officer to identify those students involved -- especially those students responsible for organizing this very high-risk activity," Stensrud wrote. "I am asking that you discuss this issue with your student and urge (him or her) to come forward if she or he has any information that will help us bring this behavior to a halt."
The two Fairview students ticketed for the March 6 fight have Boulder Municipal Court appearances scheduled Tuesday. The other eight cited so far are due to appear in court March 25.
The citations carry a fine of up to $1,000 and a maximum of 90 days in jail.
The spectators did not break any laws by watching the fights, according to police.
Originally Posted by Oso
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