Freshmen Continue To Cause Most Altercations At Pueblo

By Britney Carreon (Beginning Journalism)

Assistant Principal Frank Rosthenhausler at Pueblo High School announced that the amount of physical altercations this year has stayed “relatively the same as last year and the year before that.”

At the beginning of this school year, last August, the disciplinary action for fights changed from just having a three-day suspension. After November, this TUSD policy changed to having a “Big F”, which is a code to indicate the severity of a fight, which usually results in a student being suspended for three days. A “Little F” is a code that results in a three-day in-school suspension, usually requiring a student to spend those days with Mr. Mario Reyes, Pueblo’s ATS (Alternative To Suspension) teacher.

However, if there are any threats on Facebook, and this becomes public on school campus, this offense will have to be counted as a school threat, resulting in more severe consequences, Rosthenhausler said.

According to Rosthenhausler, there were approximately 17 total fights this school year.

He said that freshmen continue to cause the most drama on campus, and they make up the majority of physical altercations at Pueblo. Rosthenhausler said that the primary excuse for most fights was girls fighting over boys.

“The old cliché of ‘girls getting cheated on and wanting to fight the other girls’ is very common,” he said.

Rosthenhausler added, “Kids who don’t have issues resolved during their elementary and middle school years often bring those unresolved issues with them to high school.”

“When I first got to Pueblo, about five years ago, , I didn’t think there would be a lot of violence, but that quickly changed. These disciplinary problems are sometimes overwhelming.”

According to Mr. Mario Reyes, there are ways that Pueblo can reduce the number of altercations.

“With the restorative practice—which is detecting an issue before the situation gets out of hand—and finding quick ways to resolve these issues, we can minimize the number of altercations,” Reyes said. “We can also increase awareness of tensions and have more respect for one another, which would really help to ease tensions.”

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