Click the play button above to listen to an interview with Principal John Burdett and writer and senior Alyssa Clark. 

After four fights in two weeks, the school has worked with the district police and faculty to have them monitor hallways to provide more assistance for students and to provide the next steps on how the administration plans to stop the fighting at school.

Tuesday morning, March 29, principal John Burdett spoke over the intercom to students about the consequences of fighting He listed out disciplinary actions that would be taken at school or via a court referral under a Class C offense to Frisco Justice of the Peace 4. At school, students can face out-of-school or in-school suspension and potentially can go to a disciplinary alternative education placement or juvenile justice system. Students can also be sent to a judge and can be given a fine and/or community service for their actions.

“After I gave that impassioned speech over the intercom, I had numerous students come up and thank me for that,” Burdett said. “Their behavior, or their reaction to that, tells me a vast majority of our students just want to come to school, be safe and do their thing. They don’t want to be bothered with dress code or fighting. So, we made some corrective action by putting those things in place that moves a small number into what the majority of our students do every day.”

In addition to disciplinary consequences, administrators will counsel each student and partner with families on the next steps for students to work on their decisions and behavior. Anyone can report concerns about the school at 469-219-2180 or via the district police’s “Tip411” program by texting the keyword “PISDTIP” to 847411. People submitting the form are kept anonymous, and they can be as vague and/or detailed as needed. The district police officers, like Sgt. Christopher Reeves, can respond to any of the tips, and he said Tip411 provides a lot of information for him.

“If it’s (the Tip411 call) in reference to bullying, we’re always going to team up with school administration,” Reeves said. “We never are going to go into a classroom and remove a kid unless it’s an extreme circumstance. It’s all about safety. At the end of the day, we don’t want to embarrass students.”

Since the fights, the school’s police presence has increased along with staff presence in the hallways to greet students and provide a safe atmosphere. There have only been four fights this year, and they’ve all occurred within the past two weeks. Approximately five officers help in the morning, with residents Officer Darrell Terry and Sergeant Reeves staying around campus for the whole day.

“We want kids to feel safe and stop fighting in school,” Reeves said. “It’s ridiculous. It creates paperwork for us, which that’s what we’re here for, but ultimately I take it personally, and so does Officer Terry. The idea of us is to keep everyone safe. But, you got over 3,000 teenage students, and unfortunately, sometimes they’re going to have beef and make poor decisions, and they’re going to fight.”

Prosper has kept a zero-tolerance stance on fighting and bullying, and students can submit anonymous forms at this link if they see any form of bullying. Bullying may be verbal or written expression or expression through electronic means, or physical conduct.

“We had 130 days with really no issues,” Burdett said. “I think the climate and the culture of this school is one that is safe and orderly. Over the last two weeks, we just had a little speed bump.”

Burdett believes students’ behavior tells administrators what they need.

“Like I said on the announcement, there’s a small number of folks who if I gave them a warning, or a tardy or a dress code, there’s a small number who will do the same thing tomorrow,” Burdett said. “Their behavior tells you that a warning doesn’t work, so what’s the next thing? Well, you can continue giving warning after warning, but then you just give a bunch of warnings that mean nothing.”

Recording and distributing footage of fights can also leave students open to consequences.

“With videos, (fighting) became wildfire,” Burdett said. “When you add all that other stuff, it’s stoking the flames. It sweeps through the school and the community, and it’s completely unnecessary.”

There is a difference between fights between two engaged students and one student assaulting another. An assault is a Class C level court referral and includes a complaining victim – whether it be a student or parent – or if there’s bodily injury. Students will be sent to a court referral in Frisco for assaults. Illegal actions like possession of narcotics at school would be filed under Collin County.

“It wouldn’t be fair if one student was simply standing there, and even if he or she said something unpleasant verbally, that’s not necessarily a criminal offense,” Reeves said. “If the other student were to come over and strike them, it wouldn’t be fair for both of those students to get disorderly conduct court referrals for fighting.”

On Page 10 and 14, the Student Code of Conduct said students have a responsibility to help maintain the safety and order of the school. The distribution of videos is specifically listed on Page 14 with the act of illegal actions, which applies to breaking school rules, like fighting.

“If we continue having students sharing the videos and all that, do we need to just take away phone privileges? That’s not what we want to do because, again, the vast majority of students don’t fight. They mind their business. They’re not out of dress code, and they don’t share videos,” Burdett said. “Staff needs to feel safe too, and they need to know that we’re doing something about it without me giving the impression that ‘My hair’s on fire. We’re in panic mode.’ Because, we’re not.”

Burdett gets notified of any bullying report submissions, but he said there aren’t many.

“I’m not saying bullying doesn’t happen, but I think there’s a trust that students have with (administrators),” Burdett said. “We don’t advertise what we do, but we do care, and we do look into it.”

The effects of fighting have touched everyone in the school – even students who were not involved in the fights.

“The school responded responsibly like how any school should,” freshman Mamoon Siddiqui. “But, they took it a bit too far by including people who got caught in (the fights) by accident who happened to be there.”

Other students said they want a stronger administrative presence. For example, sophomore Samuel Iturrino said he believes the past two weeks are proof that the school administration isn’t doing enough.

“For the school to be completely safe, there should be admin at every corner,” Iturrino said. “No part of the school should be unseen. Now, I appreciate the staff’s effort, and I realize that having admin at every corner is probably not possible just because of the amount of staff we have, but we have to do better.”

Teachers have been asked to track where students come and go, like signing out for Eagle Time and the bathrooms, but it’s not directly related to the fighting. Bathrooms have also remained closed, with no reason that is linked to the fighting.

“All of the boys and girls restrooms should be monitored during passing periods, Eagle Time, as well as a few times during the (class) period,” Iturrino said.

According to Burdett, the newly implemented actions have created a more positive atmosphere in the hallways and at lunch.

“We’ve done what we’ve needed to do,” Burdett said. “I’m proud that we’ve done that. We’re all in this together. We all want PHS to be the absolute best school possible, and you can’t have that with a bunch of disciplinary stuff going on, because now we’re detracted from our core focus of connecting and growing with each other. You can’t build positive relationships with breaking the rules.”