At Lake Shore, there is a process of things when a fight breaks out.

When students provoke fights, they don’t always think of what the consequences are. Each fight is handled differently and carefully looked over, but they often carry repercussions in school and with the local authorities.

Will Puvalowski, the dean of students, stated, “Any fight in our building has two different paths. Obviously, there are school consequences that usually lead to suspension of some kind, and then most fights have a legal consequence as well, which could be anything from disturbing the peace all the way up to an assault charge or something like that.”

Even if a student is not part of the physical altercation, they could still face negative outcomes for instigating a fight.

For example, Puvalowski states, “There is a different part to defending yourself versus instigating a fight or whatever, so I guess it depends what you want. In most incidents, it’s usually combatant, meaning they both lead up to fighting, but there is a time to defend yourself, and then depending on how that goes, it would be a case-by-case situation. There is a level of defending yourself and there is a level where things go past that. If you are the person to say that you should fight the other there are consequences, even if you weren’t really involved.”

If a student is aware of a fight, they should always let a trusted adult know in order to avoid it. Also, if they fear being labeled, they can anonymously report it.

Puvlowski states, “The number one thing is to let us know in some way. If you are aware of a possible physical action happening in the building, then talk to me, Dr. Stevens, Mrs. Bross, because in most things, with a conversation we can prevent it from getting to physical interaction.”