A Dallas School supported their Students Fighting in a Cage

This is horrible and very telling about our inner city school systems.

In a Dallas school system, the students in South Oak Cliff High would duke it out inside a steel cage to settle their differences...and the principal and other employees supported it!

In an investigation, it was revealed that this mess has been going on for a while, years actually.

The report, first obtained by The Dallas Morning News, describes two instances of fighting in an equipment cage in a boys' locker room between 2003 and 2005. It was not clear from the report whether there were other fights.

Superintendent Michael Hinojosa told the newspaper that there were "some things that happened inside of a cage" and called the fights "unacceptable."

No criminal charges were ever filed, and there was no mention in the report of whether anyone required medical attention or whether any employees were disciplined. A district spokesman would not comment.

The allegations came to light during a grade-fixing investigation that eventually cost the high school its 2005 and 2006 state basketball titles. School officials were suspected of altering students' grades so that they could remain eligible to play for South Oak Cliff, a perennial basketball powerhouse in one of the poorer sections of the city.

The newspaper reported Thursday that Angela Williamson, a parent, said she was ignored when she attempted to bring the matter to the attention of district administrators after her son, Cortland, told her that students stood around clapping and screaming while watching a fight he participated in. He and another student fought for five to ten minutes in the cage in 2004. She said the students acted as if they were in an arena.

Williamson said she took her son out of the school and moved to another district shortly after he came home with a swollen hand.

It hurts because this happened in an inner city school. Students there already feel left out and their resources are barely useful. So when the teachers and their mentors take advantage of these kids, it just reinforce the vicious cycle they live in. These kids stand no chance in making to college or anywhere, however, they are prepped well for crime and prison.

It just breaks my heart to read this.