A disagreement between Port Alberni high school teens and not an organized fight club is to blame for two fights depicted on YouTube in September, RCMP Cpl. Jen Allan said.
Police and officials from Alberni District Secondary School came to the conclusion as both finished their investigations into the matter this week, Allan said.
The incidents happened in late September. RCMP notified School District 70 officials that video of high school youths engaging in fist fights was found on YouTube. The fights happened in the wooded area behind ADSS. School officials suspended the brawlers and were looking for who filmed the fights.
The fights were filmed randomly by a bystander and not by someone who was part of a fight club plan, Allan said. The fights were not part of an organized fight club, something that media speculated, Allan said. They were instead a disagreement between teens that got out of hand, she added.
A similar situation happened three years ago. "We clamped down on it hard and things died down but we've had an incident again," Pinkerton said.
Disagreement that got out of hand or not, such matters won't be tolerated by the school district or by police, RCMP Staff Sgt. Mac Richards said.
“We are committed to the reduction of youth violence in the school community, and as such we will not tolerate these types of incidents—consensual or not,” Richards said.