SAN BERNARDINO

By Chris Levister

 

It all started over a $.99 tube of red lip gloss. By the time Fontana High School security officers arrived in the cafeteria three girls were kicking, punching and chunks of hair were flying. A crowd of students over the girls egged them on. Several boys recorded the fight on cell phones. Three days later the incident was video entertainment on Internet websites YouTube and MySpace. 

Anyone surfing the web has probably seen recent headlines: "Violent girl fight caught on video and broadcast on YouTube". Such incidents have many psychologists, parents, educators and law enforcement officials concerned.

Fontana Police Lt. Mark Weissmann says in most cases girls involved in school related fights are cited and forced to attend anger management classes.

That's changing, according to the U.S. Justice Department it is not just boys any longer - violence among girls is on the rise. Schools report a similar pattern in the number of girls suspended or expelled for fighting. Around the country schools, police and teachers are seeing a growing tendency for girls to settle disputes with their fists and in some cases weapons.

Renee Dunbar, a 15-year-old San Bernardino student who leads group discussions for middle school girls about handling conflict, recalled watching a dozen of her schoolmates jump another girl in the bathroom.

"I was shocked. They kicked her in the stomach and head and rammed her face in the toilet. I was just like, ‘My God, these girls are going to kill her,' " Dunbar said.

At least as disturbing to Dunbar as the group attack itself was the reaction of the boys who gathered around cheering the girls on.

"The boys though it was funny and they egged it on," she said.   

The Justice Department's Uniform Crime Report from 1992 to 2004 indicates the number of girls arrested on all charges increased by 8.4 percent, compared with a decline among boys of 16.4 percent. The glaring observations involved figures for aggravated assault: girls arrested nationwide rose 41 percent, as opposed to a 4.3 percent increase among boys.

Last month New York police arrested two 14-year-old girls and a 13-year-old girl in the vicious beating of a girl that was recorded on video camera and broadcast on the Internet.

Area law enforcement and school security officials stress the majority of the local girls are not engaged in fighting. But those who are actively participating in the battles have created tension among students, teachers and district officials.

Last month on three consecutive days police were called to Riverside North High School to quell fights between Black and Hispanic boys and girls. In one fight, eyewitnesses reported seeing a girl throw the first punch. 

Principal Dale Kinnear wrote in an e-mail to his staff "I was stunned to see the ‘evilness' between some of these students."

Riverside child psychologist Shelia-Denise Pinkston, who has extensive experience with African-American juvenile cases, believes violence among girls has graduated from hair pulling and name calling. "It has evolved into physical violence and by groups of girls. The pack mentality, usually seen among boys, has caught up with girls."

 "As we market violence to girls their responses to problems and pain expands." Pinkston says major risk factors for violence include gun availability, poverty, alcohol and drug use, abusive family environments and poor self esteem.

 "These girls feel disenfranchised and alienated. They are angry. Fighting is often their way of crying out for attention."

It seems that when there's a girl fight, it's much more violent than guys says, Pinkston. "They dig in. When boys fight and someone in authority shows up they usually stop or disperse. Girls just keep punching and kicking. They don't hear you."

Pinkston is among a growing chorus of mental health professionals who blame the Internet and mass media for sending increasingly violent messages to young girls, making it hard for them to work out their differences in appropriate ways.

From "Jerry Springer" to MTV to YouTube to CNN, images of girls behaving violently are splashed across the media. Small wonder fallout from hyping the "mean girl" culture has landed in local schools, officials say.

Inland police and school security officials say most Inland communities remain on the fringe of the growing trend. Still says Lt. Weissmann, "It's just a matter of time before the troubling trend takes hold out here." 

Local schools are taking a proactive approach by offering support programs for girls and their parents. At the "Ladies Club" at San Bernardino Arroyo Valley High and "Girlfriends 101" at Curtis Middle School, girls are encouraged to express themselves through creative or directed activities such as role playing, drama, journaling, poetry, dance and art. The program stresses respect, friendship, decision making and trusting oneself, said Linda Hill spokesperson for San Bernardino City Schools.

SB chief investigator Lt. Scott Patterson says parents need to pay more attention to how their children behave in social situations, and that bullying behavior often appears early in childhood. "What kids see, kids emulate. If the home environment is abusive or violent, it's only natural that those attitudes would trickle down."

He says there's a tendency for parents to defend their children. "A parent will get a call from the school and they'll charge into the office saying, "Jenny would never fight, she's an honors student. She's a good kid."

The problem with that defense Lt. Patterson said is, "Just because a child is great in math doesn't mean they're able to solve an emotional problem."

Most observers agree the dynamics of violence among girls may be troubling but without more data parents and educators are left to grasp at tip-of-the-iceberg snapshots indicating far deeper problems.