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Fighting can be entertaining, if you're the mayor

Sarah's picture
Submitted by Sarah on Sat, 10/06/2012 - 8:20pm

 Here are two youtube videos I would like to juxtapose having to do with a real fight amongst students from my hometown and then a staged wrestling match that the mayor involved herself in.  It seems atrocious to me that the mayor involved herself in a staged fight (a form of entertainment it seems) and then come down so harshly when students perceive a real fist fight as a form of entertainment.  What example is she setting?  Also, I love how the news station is chastising the students for videotaping the fight, but yet they continue to show the video.

News clip of students fighting

News clip of mayor discussing her staged wrestling match

This might seem directly related to prisons, but it does lend to conversations about who is allowed to participate in certain acts (the right to be violent, perhaps?) and who is punished for such acts.  It also demonstrates the role of schools as punishers, but what does the punishment of a suspension really do?

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Sharaai's picture

I'm glad you posted this

Submitted by Sharaai on Sun, 10/07/2012 - 6:49pm.

I'm glad you posted this because I have seen this clip of the Lynn mayor in the wrestling ring before but have never looked at in the point of view of its influence on those witnessing it. It just seems so out of place for me to see someone with authority in a staged wrestling match.

But most importantly, the point you raised about the roles of schools as punishers, expecially linked to fighting in school and the repercussions the students are given. When students fight, at least i my high school, both students would be suspended for a ling period of time, no matter who "started' or "instigated" the fight. I always found this ridiculous because it doesn't seem fair to suspend someone that was attacked in school and would be "defending" themselves, but it also doesn't send the right message in the sense that both students will be suspended no matter what, giving the students no reason not to fight back.

And once these students get suspended, what do they do with their time? Is it really a punishement banning a student from attending school? I know that students love a break from school and being forced not to go does not sound like a form of punishment to me, at all.

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