School brawl film dropped from web
Jan 31 2008 by nick lavigueur, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
VIDEO footage of a classroom fight at a Huddersfield school have been deleted from website YouTube – thanks to the Examiner.
The scenes were filmed on a mobile phone at Salendine Nook High School during an English lesson last year.
The film was removed after the Examiner informed the website.
The footage begins with a normal classroom scene, but soon deteriorates after a youth begins to tease a classmate sitting in front of him.
With the teacher only a few feet away the pair then brawl in the middle of the classroom, knocking over a desk and crashing into other students.
Headteacher Christine Spencer, confirmed that the attack happened last March and said the police had not been called.
She added: “It was a nasty, violent attack which was pre-planned and videoed.
“The boy’s parents were brought in and he was excluded from school for four days.
“It seems the boy has recently re-loaded it to YouTube.’’
Mrs Spencer added that the teacher seen in the video, who no longer works at the school, intervened and called for help to break up the fight.
Mobile phones are banned at the school, which has the lowest level of exclusions in the Kirklees Council area and does not have a problem with fighting.
Clr Jim Dodds, Kirklees Cabinet’s member for children’s services, said the footage was horrendous.
He backed the action taken by the school, but said it was important to find out the reasons behind such acts of violence, adding that everybody deserved a second chance.
A YouTube spokesman said the video had been removed from the site for breaking the company’s terms of use.
He said: “YouTube is a community site used by millions of people in very positive ways.
“Sadly, as with any form of communication, there is a tiny minority of people who try to break the rules.
“On YouTube, these rules prohibit content like pornography or gratuitous violence.
“When people see content that they think is inappropriate they can flag it and our staff then review it.
“If the content breaks our terms then we remove it.
“If the police ask us for information we will co-operate, so long as they follow the correct legal process that the Government introduced.’’
