School helps stop ‘fight club’

Police, parents and a school district worked to stop a “fight club” that was discovered via social media, according to the Park Falls Police Department and Chequamegon Public School District.

According to police call logs, Officer Nancy Dehmlow received a call from Chequamegon Middle School Principal Kacey Hanson on March 11. The principal was concerned over a report that a group of seventh graders were possibly organizing a fight club after a fight was recorded and posted to social media. A concerned parent saw the video and notified the school.

The parents of the students involved were contacted, according to Dehmlow’s report.

Chequamegon School District Administrator Kyle Cronan said the “fight club” was something going on in the community, and was completely off school grounds and outside of school hours. While the parents and the police could have resolved the situation without the school district involvement, it became an ethical decision to follow through with the police department and parents.

“Principal Hanson reported the incident as a mandatory reporter and concerned citizen,” Cronan said. “From my understanding, this involved just a few kids, but again this was not our incident to investigate as it happened out of the schools.”

The term “Fight Club,” comes from the 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk, and the more popular 1999 film of the same name starring Brad Pitt. The story follows a discontent white-collar worker who meets a mysterious salesman who together form a “fight club” of fellow unhappy men who engage in secret fight nights that eventually becomes a cult of violence.

There were many such imitation clubs that reportedly formed around the United States at the time of the film.