CHICAGO - Chicago police are investigating after a fight between children inside an elementary school classroom was caught on video and posted to social media. The children were allegedly forced to fight by the grown-up who was there to supervise.
It happened during an after-school program Monday at Stagg Elementary in Englewood.
Throughout the three minute video, there’s an adult voice, not just egging the boys on, but ordering them to fight. The students say she’s already locked the classroom door.
In the video, one boy throws the other to the ground and pins him by the neck.
The boys in the video are reportedly friends and in the 5th and 6th grade. Their supervisor reminds them to make sure they’re still friends after the fight.
Gerald Jackson is one of the boys in the video and he says the teacher forced them to fight.,
“She said if we didn’t fight, we were going to get beat up. … by her," he told WGN News.
Gerald’s mother Tameeah Blackshire says the other boy was hurt, but both were traumatized. She says her son suffered a panic attack after the fight and had to be rushed to a hospital.
“It makes you angry, especially with all the stuff that’s already going on in society today,” she said. “It makes you very angry, knowing you have a son and that’s not something you’re teaching him at home. But that’s something that at school, they’re condoning. It’s very, very frustrating."
The school had already addressed the incident with some parents by the time the video went viral. It sent a letter out to the rest today, saying, in part:
The safety of your children is always our top priority … this adult is not a CPS employee and is no longer supervising after-school activities at our school.
Parents say they’re hopeful that that now-former after-school supervisor gets charged.
