Illinois Public School a Battleground of Student Brawls

This is what goes on in some of America’s government schools.

Proviso West High School is a public high school located in Hillside, Illinois, about ten miles west of metropolitan Chicago.

As reported by NBC5 Chicago, Feb. 7, 2013, 15 Proviso West High School students were suspended this week and face expulsion following a big fight in the school cafeteria on Monday. School security even called in the Hillside police. No injuries were reported.

Both the police and school authorities played down the incident.

Hillside Police Chief Joseph Lukaszek said “This was a bunch of pushing and punching. It was a very typical high school fight.”

Hillside school district spokesman Rob Daniel said in a statement: “The school is safe and it remains safe. School dismissal was without incident yesterday, and there have been no incidents today.”

Here are two videos on the fight: a news video, followed by a raw video taken on the scene which begins with guttural animalistic sounds. You be the judge whether it’s a “very typical high school fight”!

District spokesman Daniel said “The school is safe.”

Really?

Here are videos I found of previous student fights at Proviso West High School, beginning with a fight in the school’s hallway, posted to YouTube just a week ago:

Here’s a fight in a Proviso West school bus, uploaded onto YouTube in August 2012:

Another Proviso West brawl posted to YouTube in Sept 2008:

This video was uploaded to YouTube in May 2008 (a commenter identifies the school as Proviso West):

Proviso West‘s class of 2008 had an average composite ACT score of 16.7. To compare, the ACT college benchmark readiness scores for English Mathematics, Reading, and Science are 18, 22, 21, and 24, respectively. (See p. 3 of ACT Profile Report.)

77.5% of Proviso West’s 2008 senior class graduated. Proviso West did not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) on the Prairie State Achievements Examination, which with the ACT comprises the state assessments used to fulfill the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Neither the school overall, nor any of its four student subgroups met expectations in reading or mathematics. The school is listed as being in its 5th year of academic watch.

Proviso West’s student demographics: