Pleasant Valley School District is taking new steps to prevent fights in the high school.

Superintendent James Konrad said there have been five fights at the high school within the past couple months. The fights have involved mainly girls in the ninth- and tenth grades.

“They were severe and won’t be tolerated at Pleasant Valley,” Konrad said.

From information the district has gathered, the fights stem from comments made on social media.

The high school security handled the fights and the incidents are being investigated. Some of the students involved in the fights are no longer in the school at this time, Konrad said.

Although Konrad didn’t say if any students involved in the fights were expelled, the school board directors approved the expulsion of three students on Dec. 16, during their meeting.

“We have 1,300 high school students and we had eight students that were involved with fights,” he said. “This is the overwhelming minority of students that are being involved with this. The overwhelming majority of kids are not engaging in fights.”

Conflict resolution

Konrad said that part of the problem is that some young teenagers do not have conflict resolution skills.

“I think it’s important that we coach our students. Give them the skills they don’t know. It hurts when someone says something mean about you. It hurts even more when it’s 100% not true,” he said.

Konrad also wants to look into ways to prevent bullying.

“Respect one another; respect differences. It’s how we react to situations that defines us,” he said.

In a step toward his goal, Konrad organized a parent meeting on Dec. 13. About 110 parents attended, as well as about 16 people in administration and school security. The staff members took turns talking about the steps that were taken to address the assaults.

The district also had school counselors talk to students in each of the classrooms, in particular ninth- and 10th-graders. He thinks that from a social adjustment standpoint, these younger students might be struggling a little bit. They don’t have the peer mediation conflict resolution skills, he said.

“Safety is the responsibility of all of us,” Konrad said. “It’s the parents to educate their children and to monitor their social interactions on social media and friends. It’s the staff members to see what’s happening with the students in the classroom and to check in with them. It’s the counselors to make sure they are readily available to support students. It’s our administrators setting the tone in the building with what the expectations are and how we are going to support one another. It’s the superintendent of that vision to bring all of those parties together and working seamlessly with one another.”

In addition to education, the district is trying do more preventive things by monitoring social media, implementing a Safe2Say program, and using a Student Assistance Program to provide support and services to students in need.

“It’s important to just check in with kids and see how they’re doing. We care. We appreciate that they come to school. We’re here to support them. Dare I say it, but I’m going to say it; we love them. We’re happy to see them, because sometimes that might be the only nice thing that that kid hears. I think it’s really important to really take that into consideration,” he said.

Konrad also thinks that students and their families need the assurance that the schools are safe, the district is do everything it can to ensure that safety, and that there is support for teens who need help.

The Safe2Say program gives students the ability to quickly and anonymously tell the district about things that are concerning to them. It could be something they heard on social media or maybe someone said he or she wants to hurt himself or herself. QR codes will be on posters throughout the school where a student can easily scan and report a concern.

“We need to make sure our kids are aware of those resources. That’s going to help us get really safe,” he said. “You can’t prevent everything, but you can prevent a lot of things by just being proactive and knowing what we need to tap into to help support our kids.”

Konrad is also planning more meetings with parents with the next one in January and monthly grade-level meetings, in particular with ninth- and 10th-graders.

“We have to keep the conversation going,” he said.