Dallas’ high school cage fights

Forget school counselors, said Dan Glaister in Britain’s The Guardian. A high school in Dallas allegedly came up with a “more direct” way to settle disputes between students: “bare-knuckle fighting inside a steel cage.” A 2008 school district report obtained by The Dallas Morning News found that South Oak Cliff High School, with the sanctioning of then-Principal Donald Moten, used “the cage,” in the boys' locker room, for sport and discipline from 2003 to 2005.

This makes South Oak’s other recent scandal—grade-fixing for basketball players—seem “almost quaint,” said The Dallas Morning News in an editorial. Yes, it was cheating, but the “cage fights” are “barbarism.” The thing they share is that they were both orchestrated by Moten and other adults, all of whom need “a visit from law enforcement.”

Instead of jail, they moved Moten to an elementary school, from which he “resigned under pressure” last year, said Maggie Thorton in Right Pundits. But Moton assures us: “Ain’t nothing to comment on. It never did happen.” Local parents must be horrified at the cage fights and grade-fixing, but an ex-principal “who uses ‘ain’t’ in public” is the icing on the cake.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up