In Loudon County, Virginia, a middle school principle was forced to send a letter to parents informing them about a middle school fight club involving students that had developed.  Parents shocked?  Some of them might have been.  Others, however, were being scolded.  They were the ones facilitating these grudge matches between students.

It appears certain parents were hosting these fights in their garages.  Kids earned money for fighting, and adults bet on the matches.  Videos of the bouts were then posted on TikTok, which came back to tarnish the reputation of the school.  It didn’t exactly facilitate a positive learning climate either.

So of all the things teachers have to contend with, you can now add student fight clubs to the mix.  It’s easy to condemn these parents for what many would find to be an unfathinable parenting decision, but condemnation seldom leads to anything productive.  So I try to approach situation with a bit more compassionate curiosity.  In Thailand, Kick Boxing is a big thing, and adults bet on matches involving kids as young as five.  There are also organized marshal arts tournaments for youths in this country.  So I suppose it’s possible that through a bit of mental gymnastics that most of us wouldn’t engage in, these parents were able to justify these activities as no big deal.  Still, organized marshal arts tournaments, which are as much sport as fighting, are a far cry from holding underground fight clubs with Junior High school kids for money

Stories like this are also a symptom of a much larger problems: our culture’s glorification of violence.  I sometimes wonder if humanity will ever get past its gladiator mentality, but it certainly doesn’t help that everywhere children turn violence and aggression are equated with strength, heroics, and glory.