Students Expelled for Tacoma Middle School 'Fight Club

TACOMA, Wash. (AP/The Blaze) — Nine sixth-grade boys suspected of participating in a so-called "fight club" have been expelled from a Tacoma, Wash., middle school. Fourteen other students are also suspected of being involved in the organized fights.

School officials tell The News Tribune they found out about the club when the relative of one participant spoke to a television station about it. KCPQ-TV also aired a cell phone video showing two kids fighting in a school bathroom.

The fights took place at Stewart Middle School and in homes.

"I was horrified. I kept expecting one of them to go into the wall -- those bathrooms are very unforgiving on a 12 year old boy's body," an unnamed woman said after her nephew -- a member of the so-called fight club -- showed her footage of fights he captured on his cell phone camera. The youngster says he had recorded at least 15 separate fights taking place after school, inside the Steward Middle School boy's bathroom.

"After we took the cell phone from him he received a text saying is it your turn to fight on Monday? These were definitely planned, I know my relatives are young boys and they were willing participants because it was fun for them," the anonymous woman told the local Fox affiliate. "I would like to see the school increase its security,and accountability to the parents, when they are supposed to be watching and supervising them," she added.

A Tacoma Public Schools spokesman says the school expelled the boys as of Monday. When they can return will be determined on a case-by-case basis, with school officials weighing each students' disciplinary histories.

District officials have told school principals throughout Tacoma to be on the alert for similar clubs.