Since in-person learning resumed in September 2021, school fights in Parkdale are supposedly higher than the year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The spike in rates for the amount of school fights have left people wondering why such a thing is occurring. 

Although there are multiple reasons on why there seems to be more school fights this school year, the result of isolation is one factor that has been noticed. After students have been isolated for over a year due to the pandemic taking place and schools closing, students have had to adjust to being back into the school building and being around other people who they are not familiar with.

In an article made by The Washington Post, more is talked about isolation being connected with the increase of violent acts, which was a statement that was spoken by The Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  The DHS also says in the article that the pandemic made mental health professionals inaccessible to students.  

Ms.Brown, a Parkdale security guard who has been in Parkdale since 2019, explained that there have been 20 fights and 12 expulsions so far this school year. 

“The adults are more afraid and don’t want to get involved because of COVID,” said Ms.Brown. “If they get more involved, there would be less fights and less confrontations in the school. [There are] three security members left, so more security would be nice.”

Ms.Brown’s answers not only connect with the information cited in the article previously mentioned, but it also connects with an Edweek article that talks about the increase of violence in schools. 

“Criminologists note that the nation is in the grip of a general spike of violence probably due to the pandemic and social unrest accompanying the murder of George Floyd in 2020,” says the Edweek article. “Their best guess is that those trends are trickling, inexorably and tragically, down to K-12 students.”

Although the George Floyd incident is probably not a major factor in the increase of Parkdale fights for this school year, criminologists noticing that the pandemic is a reason why the amount of violence has started to increase shows that certain factors of this situation are being confirmed by a multitude of people.

There are solutions that have been suggested to stop the increase of school fights, but in order to lower the increase of school fights, being very aware of them may be crucial in order to figure out a solution to the situation.