LAUDERDALE LAKES, Fla. – Parents are outraged after several brawls were captured on cellphone video Thursday at Boyd Anderson High School in Lauderdale Lakes. Some parents said too many students are slugging it out and no one is learning anything.
The first punches were thrown in the courtyard of the school right as classes started for the day.
"People were just going crazy about it," one student, identified only as Elijah, said.
The video shows dozens and dozens of students standing by. Parent Kimberly Graham said what angers her the most is that staff members do not appear to quickly intervene.
"My son got jumped," she said. "He's being kicked all in the head and everything -- jumped on by several students. Where was the security guard when all of this was going on?"
Broward County Public Schools spokeswoman Nadine Drew said in a statement that "security staff and law enforcement responded quickly to separate several students involved in altercations on campus prior to school starting."
The video shows Graham's 14-year-old son, who was wearing a white T-shirt, surrounded by a mob of students.
"It didn't involve my son at first, no," Graham said. "It was two little girls that were fighting at first. Another boy got into it and some kind of way my son wound up in it."
Graham said her son was arrested after the fight.
The incident was one of a series of fights on campus Thursday that have been making the rounds on social media.
"It's kids. Kids gonna always fight over stupid things sometimes," Elijah said.
The Broward Sheriff's Office confirmed that deputies were called out to the school to help contain the situation.
In another altercation caught on camera, two girls appear to fight each other as another student records the drama.
A man, believed to be a school employee, is seen breaking apart the pair.
An adult also eventually intervened in the fight involving Graham's son.
But the drama ended with her son in custody, even though she maintains he was not the instigator.
"You send your child to school, you think there's adult figures around that's supposed to be protecting your child," she said. "(There) should be security everywhere and (there's) not."
Drew said the school was placed on lockdown as a precaution and there were no reported injuries.
"School disciplinary measures will be in accordance with the District's Code Book for Student Conduct discipline matrix," she said.