Parents afraid to send their children to Jacksonville school due to recent fights

Some parents with children at Ed White High School said they are scared to send their children to school because of fights on campus.

Ian Flores is a junior at the school and said fights happen every week.

Brutal fights between students at Ed White High School. Parents and students say it’s a problem that’s happening much too often. The action they’re calling for, at 5:30 on CBS47 @ActionNewsJax. pic.twitter.com/ESuonnwY24
— Christy Turner (@ChristyANJax) March 7, 2019

“It’s very violent,” Flores said. “That’s why I usually just keep to myself and my small group of friends.”

He said a fight broke out inside the school cafeteria Wednesday and staff had a hard time breaking it up.

“At lunchtime kids start altercations and it always escalates,” Flores said.

A viewer sent Action News Jax video of four separate fights.

One of the videos shows what appears to be a school employee get knocked to the ground while trying to stop two girls from throwing punches.

Action News Jax reached out to the Duval County Public School District to learn more about the school’s security and how it handles student discipline after fights.

In a statement, DCPS said “physical altercations on our campuses are simply unacceptable and students who violate the Code of Conduct are disciplined accordingly.”

DCPS said it needs the support of everyone – including students and parents – to ensure this stops.

DCPS said there have been 28 reported fighting incidents at the school this school year. That's compared to 23 fighting incidents at the same time last school year.

According to DCPS, there were 34 fighting incidents in 2017-2018 total.

Action News Jax requested the reported fights at all high schools in Duval County for comparison. The school district is working on our request.