Fighting

Hey guys well i got suspended from school because I defended myself from someone who wanted to fight me. He sucker punched me in the back of the head twice then again in the side of the head when i turned around. I swung back once and landed it on his forehead then he hit me 3 or 4 more times after that. I went to the office and they said that since i swung back even in defence i am suspended for 3 days starting monday. Normally this wouldent matter so much but the problem is that it is finnals week. I am allowed to retake my finals later but still. I just want to hear what you guys have to say about me getting suspended over defending myself. It is more just to see if i am right and that i shouldent of gotten in as much trouble or if it was ok for them to do this. Oh and plus i got a ticket for disturbing the peace and i have a court date next month. My parents are just mad at the school because they agree with me. The other kid is getting in just as much trouble with nothing i didnt get. Just tell me if you agree that i should of gotten punished for this or if i should have been for the most part let go with maybe a detention. No matter what you say i wont blow up so ya i guess thats it...

Yeah this is actually part of the law. My best friend recently wen to jail(not prison) for fighting in school. They do the same thing at our high school.

Since you are 15 I assume you are a Freshman? welcome to the big boys league. Everything that you do can be a serious offense, there are no more "well since he did hit you first...". Do you have a school cop? Your actually lucky you didnt get taken to jail and had an immediate trial, the 'delayed date' judges are usually more understanding and much nicer.

sticks

lol no i am sophmore so i know the ropes but the thing is that this is new and i didnt under stand that i would be suspendded.

If it were me (and I had proof he threw the first punch) I would probably threaten to sue the school. On what grounds? Promoting unsafe standards, not allowing me to defend myself, punishment when I only prevented myself from taking more damage. From what I am hearing, it sounds like the school is saying "He should be hit and not defend himself when another kid attacks him"

Your case? You didn't disrupt the peace, you simply defended yourself when attacked, and now feel unsafe at school because the security didn't do their job properly. You can not be expected to stand and take assault from a kid. Usually people who attack you have problems with you in the first place. I bet he makes fun of you? I would then move the case onto, this person constantly harasses me, and yet (despite reporting this to the officials, assuming I am correct that he did harass you before and you did report it). The school has done nothing to stop the harassments. which now lead to the fight

Then I would personally charge that (Other person) with assault.

Don't know if the case would win, but the bad publicity the school gets would be stunning. Enough that it would cause problems. And if they try to get you in trouble for that. . . well, it is against the law to retaliate against a student for fighting an unjust punishment, or some such thing I think.

DO you have an lawyers who give free legal consulting?

You would need a good lawyer I think, and just remember, anything can be won.

If someone taunts you, and you hit them, they can sue for assault. You can counter sue saying they inspired the fight using words (The legal term escaping me right now). ^_^ (Suing isn't the answer for everything).

Actually no we have never exchanged words. He is in my chemestry class and although we were never friends we never harassed eachother either. And i don't want to sue anyone i just don't feel like it was aproprate for them to do this to me. When I do go to court i am going to tell the truth and he even screw himself because he bragged that he trew first that he landed 6 or 7 punches and all of this other stuff. I just hope he gets it worse than me. And im not one to hold grudges in fact i don't even hate the kid now that doesnt mean that i don't dislike him because i don't think it was appropriate for him to do this but i don't know if he just got in a fight with his girlfriend or his parents or what ever. So really I just wish to get it over with not talk to him and not have to worry about it. But ya no sueing involved lol but ya still give me what you guys think because i have 5 days of nothing to do.

P.S.
I just found out that if i take a behavior class later in the school year i can come back this tuesday but my parents are iffy on it because they arnt sure what the judje will think about it. But if i do take it then i will just tell her it was so i could go and take my finals on time.

I wouldn't take the behavior class (as principal). Because in my opinion, you did nothing wrong. You have a right to defend yourself if attacked.

I agree. "Watch your language", I hate public school. at least at private I can knock someone's teeth out without this redtape if they tried to start sumthing.

AFU, by punching the kid back he 'disturbed the peace' AKA by fighting back he elevated a simple harassment into a full blown fight. Self defense will only hold up in court if your life is threatened. My advice is to take the class, you may not agree with the schools ruling but the Judge will like it. It may even save you a couple hundred dollars.

Stuff like this is usually not worth fighting in court. By the time your expenses get paid you will probably have lost the same amount as if you just got the ticket and walked away anyways.

I'm guessing that you have not been in many fights, based on the fact that the fight only lasted for 9 hits. You actually probably did a good thing by hitting his forehead, had you hit his nose or broken any bones you would be a much worse situation.

Since you only hit him once the judge might even drop the case(if you take the classes). IMO just do what they tell you, you will probably save money/time and stress.

sticks

Ya its not a good circumstance to be in. Maybe just the wrong place at the wrong time. The rules are what they are though even if they are unfair. I would just do what you have to do without a fuss to lessen the conquences.

wow that really sucks dude why did the kid attack you.hey atleast you protected yourself

Well I guess you guys are right but just so you guys now we arnt getting lawyers and stuff it is kinda just like going to court and representing yourself and no i have never been in a fight at school. On the other hand my mom was looking at some of the disiplin actions the school could of taken and it ranges from saying sorry to getting suspended. I know that suspention was the hardest one and i don't get why they didnt just make me have detention or something because in the two years I was here i have never even gone to the office. But whatever.

Any unwanted physical contact is Assault, and we all have the Right to defend ourselves in the `` Appropriate Manner ´´, there´s the Hook.

Sorry that this happened to you, and I would also be most Pissed Off if I was in your shoes.

But, and I know you don´t want to hear this, since it happened in school, you have to deal with the school´s policies, and politics.

My advice is the same as sticks, take the wrap, do your finals later, then move on. You could use the time to really prepare for Finals, or do something really worth while like TUNE YOUR AIRSOFT !!!!! ( just trying to lighten up your day, sorry ).

This used to happen to me a lot , but now I have in a way grown out of it . Fighting runs in my family , and I was always taught if you didn't throw the first punch , then itd ok . Whic hisn't intirely true . I have met some people who are , well difficult , to get along with , and I have gotten in fights with them . Most Everything at our school having to do with fights happens at P.E. when the senors watch over us , the coach is normally too busy . And as long as you don't get a nose bleed , or something that isn't noticable , you probally get away with it . As a matter of fact , I used to fight a lot because I was the smallest one is my class . Normally I would lose , but I had that feeling of pride inside of me that I stood up for myself , and normally after I got in a fight that person wouldn't bother me any more , which I liked . But now that I have gotten bigger I can defend myself more better and started to win my fights . But fighting is not always answer , I know that by now you are probally tired and sick of hearing it , and I am not telling you to run and hide at any signs of danger or a " bully " , but try to only fight when you don't start the fight , even though you may get punished for it , at least you will have somebody behind you whenever you do get punished for it . I would much rather be punished at school then at home , my school the worse that they can do is kick me out , and normally they don't even do that to fighting fighters . Now if we were to get caught , thats another story , thats why we do it at P.E. , the worse he does is give a as a " paddeling " which doesn't hurt . My friend could have gotten expelled the other day ,if we didn't have Mr. Mack , a cool coach , for a subsitute , he just pulled them outside and tld them not to do it anymore .

I had a simaler thing happen to me on the bus, A kid stared wailing on me, and I kicked him back into his seat, just to get him off, all the bus driver saw was me kick him off, so she came back yelling, then saw my face, and made both of us come to the front of the bus. I talked to my principal about the whole "self defense" thing (I realy didnt want to get suspended) , and he said it was beceause there were times were some sucker punched, and then (the kid who got punched) proceaded to beat the snot out of the other kid, and the kid who threw the first punch, proceaded to sue for something like, "Mental trauma, physical and mental distress, extreme violence, etc... I got 3 days suspension over homecoming weekend, and then didn't get to make anything up

Yes, if that happened to me I would counter sue for the same thing. In court it is all about who has the better lawyer. Granted there are things that might be considered un-winnable, or even too difficult to win. But I wouldn't count this as one of them.

P.S. This was during th "windstorm of '08" here in ohio after huricane Ike

Well, sometimes as hard is it is to say, the best thing to do is ignore it and move on.

I have to say that it is alot harder than it seems, I diddnt want to fight the kid, it just hapened

You could sue on the grounds that he hit your head fist multiple times which could have long term damage, but i don't think you should sue jsut thought i throw that out there. although you defending yourself thing is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. At my school a teacher on teh first day of school said if you ever get hit even if they are bigger either hit back once and run or overact, like if in the hall fall into the locker and act all hurt. The second one is actually pretty funny because teh person that hits you has the funniest look on there face.

I would not go with the sue option. That would be very costly, and would solve that much of the problem. Schools have some weird rules for fights that could probblay use some revising. Sueing though is I think taking it over the top for not much of a reason. I would just go with whatever the school tells you to do. Or you could just not punch them back and as Gracie said just pretend to be really hurt.

The Public School laws regarding fights are complete and total bullshit. If you were attacked on the street by a mugger threatening your life, you could wail on him until he was just a carbon stain on the asphalt (provided you didn't actually use lethal force unless you had reason to believe your life was actually in danger). But Noooooooo, Public Schools don't believe in the law unless they made it themselves.

In my own, personal, honest opinion, (in response to p51dmustangs post in regards to the kid being punched going ape "Watch your language" on the instigator's ass) That kid that starts the fight deserves what comes to him if he gets beaten. There's no better lesson learned than one learned with pain and the loss of face. (Either the literal face on the front of the head or the metaphorical Credibility)

And to Killyouno5: Don't worry about it so much. You didn't do anything wrong (You probably know that already) and you probably did exactly the right thing. (Again, in MOHN) Just tell the simple, honest truth in court and if the Judge isn't completely and totally retarded you should be fine.

Well, if you got suspended for that I might as well not go to high school and save everybody who pisses me off a trip to the hospital and an expoletoin lol.

I think it's kinda stupid though, I mean it was self defense I understand somebody could have gotten hurt depending on how long the fight went on and how hard the both of you fought. But really if it was a fair fight no weapons of any sort just fists then nobody could get hurt TOO bad so something shouldn't have happened. Also I am in 8th so I don't know how the high schools are but from what I have done in the past I scare the living crap out of them (it's nice being 5'8" and most in the school are about 5'5") I go the the VICE principal (he is an ex BAD A** marine) and he takes care of it with no harm done to me.

Also if you can retake the finals then it should all be good you never know it might be better to wait to study up on then (psh it's not like I do but you might be able to)

but what I'm trying to say is he started it so you shouldn't get punished for something you didn't start. Also what happened to the kid that punched you?

At my school some kids fight with pad locks. In the locker room while I kneeled over to open my bottom row locker a kid ran and jumped on a bench and kicked me in the back of the head. So my face busted open on a locker. All he got was 10 day suspension. Even after he hit a 3rd grader with a lock. He should of been expelled. I did nothing back because my dominant side of my body couldn't see. I did nothing to instigate him.

Well I got back into school after having to skip one day and so did the other kid. I found out this kid has never been in a fight and that explains why he couldnt hit but later he tried to start more stuff and because I made a deal with my dean I went and told him about it. I will tell this to the judge but I don't mean to brag but several years in karate and boxing has tough me how to fight. He is mostly lucky he didnt punch me when I was actually turn torwards him. Also after I told people what happened they all dislike him becasue he didnt have the... to fight a fare fight. And guys im not going to sue anyone unless they really messed me up.

panic324 wrote:

The Public School laws regarding fights are complete and total bullshit. If you were attacked on the street by a mugger threatening your life, you could wail on him until he was just a carbon stain on the asphalt (provided you didn't actually use lethal force unless you had reason to believe your life was actually in danger). But Noooooooo, Public Schools don't believe in the law unless they made it themselves.

While the last part about Public schools is mostly true (at least at my school it is ), the other part is false in most PD districts. Unless the person who was 'threatening' you with some sort of deadly weapon(baseball bat, gun, knife). Both of you would be sitting in the back of a cruiser for 'disturbing the peace'. In most cases the officer understands the victims responce, however if you beat him till he was a " carbon stain on the asphalt " you would most likely be taken to jail, wait over night, get a review with a judge, then either head of to a local Prison or get a really heavy fine.

Atleast that's how it works in both Columbus and Springfield(IL, and OH).

sticks