Investigation continues into Westsyde brawl
Officials with the Kamloops-Thompson school district are continuing their investigation into a vicious schoolyard fight earlier this week that was captured on video and posted to YouTube.
School district assistant superintendent Karl de Bruijn said principals at three area schools — Westsyde secondary, Brock middle school and Twin Rivers Education Centre — are trying to figure out who was involved and to what extent.
"We're continuing to investigate the involvement of these students who were caught on the video and encouraged or promoted the fight," he said.
"The big goal is to ensure it doesn't happen again."
The fight took place over the lunch hour on Tuesday, March 27, near Westsyde secondary.
"We had some visitors fight at lunch," said Westsyde principal Sean Lamoureux.
"The original students involved in the fight were suspended pending the investigation. The students from the other schools were suspended by their principals."
District officials are now examining the video — which was pulled from YouTube shortly after it was posted — to determine who was present, and mete out any punishment.
The combatants will face a disciplinary hearing at the school district office in the near future.
De Bruijn acknowledged the fact schoolyard fights happen from time to time, but said the ever-evolving world of social media is making it easier for students to "promote" brawls — and share video of them.
"That makes it more widespread," he said, adding the initial disagreement that sparked the brawl started on Facebook.
"The bottom line is, we don't want to see children hurt."
De Bruijn said the school district received its copy of the video from CFJC-TV7, which pulled a copy off of YouTube before it was taken down.
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