Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law which would allow legal protections for teachers that break up any fights in school in response to more and more videos posted to social media showing violence in schools. Teachers often take heat for breaking up fights and sometimes become the leading story after videos surface on social media without context.  Some teachers even face charges for using any force against students if they respond to an outbreak of a fight. The president of the Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association, Sophia Youngberg, discussed the topic with CBS12 News and explained, “Because of the students filming everything, the teachers are afraid to interfere or intervene because they might be accused of assault or some other crime." The new bill passed in Florida is called the Teachers Bill of Rights.  CBS12 News reports "It says teachers may use reasonable force, according to standards adopted by the state board of education, to protect themselves or others from injury." The media of course has focused on the Parental Rights law that DeSantis passed, which the media spun as the "Don't Say Gay" law but has conveniently not reported on the Teachers Bill of Rights that has garnered large support. Youngberg acknowledged the importance of the new law proclaiming "The staff and the teachers need to be given the benefit of the doubt that they are doing it for the right reasons — to protect not only the students who are fighting from hurting each other, but the other students who are around them." According to CBS12 News, federal data shows a dramatic 56% increase nationwide of classroom disruptions ever since the pandemic ended and students returned to school.
William Rizzo is a social studies teacher in a middle school in Florida who explained just how smartphones effect conflict in schools. “Listen, kids run to a fight instead of running away from it, they run to it and most of them whip out their phones and start filming,” Rizzo explained. “I have done that many times, gotten in the middle of both girl fights and boy fights, splitting them apart, picking them off each other and pushing them back to a safer place and usually I stand in between them and by then an administrator comes.”