Video shows fight break out at Jacksonville middle school

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville mother is pushing for change at a middle school after she says her daughter was jumped while eating in the cafeteria.

Cellphone video shows a fight at Lake Shore Middle School on Wednesday.

School leaders say it broke out between eighth-graders at approximately 1:30 p.m.

“She was clearly sitting at the table when she got attacked. She was clearly sitting down when the girl jumped on the table and started fighting her,” Michelle Palmer said.

The fight stemmed from an argument on social media, school leaders said.

Palmer said her 13-year-old daughter told a teacher a group of girls was bothering her and her friends.

“She’s already brought up to school officials, the beginning of the week, that these girls were bothering them, nothing happened,” she said.

Action News Jax obtained a letter to parents from Lake Shore Middle School. It says staff and school police immediately intervened in the fight and that no one was hurt.

The letter says new procedures were put in place after the fight, including smaller lunch groups in which boys and girls are separated, decreased privileges to discourage bad behavior and stricter safety and behavior plans in classrooms.

The letter says changes include lessons that teach students social and emotional skills.

Palmer says she wants to see school officials try to resolve issues between students before they escalate.

“When things like this occur, or even before it occurs, take the kids, get them together, sit them down find out where the issue is lying,” she said.

School leaders say there were four adults in the cafeteria when the fight started, and that several others came to the cafeteria afterward.

Cox Media Group