Halls Head College fight club: Photos emerge of students boxing each other in classroom, parents raise fears

It’s where boys go in secret to let off steam and prove their worth — and risk getting broken jaws, swollen cheeks and black eyes while being beaten to a pulp. Welcome to “fight club” — Halls Head College-style. Where the biggest and strongest students rule. What makes it worse, the event is held in a classroom during school time. However, worried parents have started to find out about the violence going on within the Mandurah independent public school’s walls as their children — generally Year 8 students aged between 12 and 13 — have let them in on the secret, and videos of the brutal battles emerge. One fed-up parent, who was shocked to find out that her son had taken part in the last “fight club” — believed to have been held in a classroom during last period last Friday — said it was “out of control”. “For my son, this was his first time that he visited it but it is well known that you can go there,” the mum, whose name has been withheld to protect student identities, said. “The kids know that’s what happens.” The mother said her boy had told her that some students had up to five fights in the 45-minute period. “He (my son) told me that most of the kids in the room had had five fights each and he had only been able to get in two,” she said. “That’s a lot of time the kids are being left unsupervised. And there are a lot of kids in there. “And it’s the children that are pulling the children off of each other, or calling it quits or telling it to ‘stop, let him get up’, or whatever. “It’s just wild.” The worried mum said that she had talked to the college’s principal Bronwyn White on Monday about the issue, showing her videos of the students fighting. She said other parents had brought up similar complaints. “Something needs to get done before someone gets badly hurt,” she said. “My son rang me up after school and asked to go for a swim at the beach on the day after he was involved in the fights and I said, ‘yep, no worries’. “And then I’m finding this out later. What if he got knocked around a bit too much or knocked his head on the desk? And I’m letting him go for a swim.” She said there were also fears that the “fight club” could spill outside of the classroom. “What if one child gets up on another one, it goes outside of the room, it goes out into a carpark somewhere, it’s on a weekend because they feel like they’ve got a challenge to try and . . . what if someone got really humiliated? Where’s the mental health for that?’ she said. “It’s just not on. It’s not on.” South Metropolitan region director of education Sue Cuneo said that it, and the school, were aware of some sort of “fight club” and had taken action. “We are aware of a small group of students who are friends who were involved in a game that did not involve any malicious intent,” she said on Thursday. “The school immediately addressed this matter with the students, who have now stopped the behaviour, and their parents have been advised. “Parents can be assured that when inappropriate and violent behaviour occurs, it is taken very seriously and principals take immediate action in response to incidents of violence. “Under the violence in schools action plan ‘standing together against violence’, any student who intentionally instigates violence — or films attacks or fights — is suspended automatically.” While Halls Head College principal Bronwyn White was not available to comment, she did acknowledge in an email to one worried mum that “fight club” was being investigated. “I am most grateful that you have taken time to alert me to this,” she said in the email. “I have no doubt that further practices will be reviewed as we move forward to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”