Johnson County Sheriff's deputies broke up a local high school "fight club" late last month involving De Soto teens.
Lt. Steve Quigg, of the sheriff's office, said deputies first started hearing rumors three weeks ago of organized fights involving De Soto High School students.
"We had no idea it was going on," he said. "A young enterprising student had decided to start up - for lack of a better word - a fight club to prove their toughness.
"They had the whole thing organized - mouthpieces, rules, no striking in the face, with the first one to tap out losing."
After hearing two such events had occurred on Fridays in rural areas near De Soto, the sheriff's office placed eight patrol cars in the area the evening of Jan. 27. After a play at the high school that night, a caravan of eight carloads of teens were spotted driving to the selected spot.
"We decided we were going to break it up before there was a fight," Quigg said. "We pretty much knew where it was going to be and sure enough here they came. When they saw the police cars, they scattered like fleas on a hound."
Sheriff's deputies were able to stop the cars.
"To their credit, they admitted what they were there for," Quigg said. "They were there to fight."
Because there was no criminal activity requiring citations or arrests, the teens' parents were not informed.
De Soto High School principal Dave Morford said he was aware of the investigation that led to the Jan. 27 discovery. He did not discuss the incident with the teens before or after the incident because it occurred outside of school and because he didn't want to interfere with a police investigation.
The teens did get a stern lecture from deputies of what could have been in store for them had the officers come upon a fight or had a participant been seriously injured, Quigg said. Organizers and the fighter causing the injury would have been charged "at a minimum" with criminal battery, while the other students would have faced citations for unlawful assembly and criminal trespassing.
The fighters and organizers also were putting themselves at risk of civil action, Quigg said.
Apparently, the warnings worked. Quigg said the sheriff's office saturated the De Soto area again Friday night and did not see any activity. The idea seemed to originate with the De Soto student, he said.
"If it's a fad, it's underground," he said. "We'd never heard of it before."
It was the second student-organized game to surface in De Soto this school year. In November, the sheriff's office approached students about a game of "Mafia," in which students took turns being hit men and victims, using air guns to ambush each other around town.
The sheriff's office was concerned because of the possibility the guns could have been mistaken for actual weapons. Quigg said students discontinued the game when sheriff's office deputies approached them about it.
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theifoncross (anonymous) says…
"organized - mouthpieces, rules, no striking in the face, with the first one to tap out losing."
Should have gotten a School sponcer and called it the Wrestling team. or boxing club or football.
"Mafia,"
again School sponcer ROTC. protecting american games or some other "Patriotic" theme then it would be ok. Might have even been Honored by the Prez
KUHSKR3 (anonymous) says…
Perhaps the kids in DeSoto REALLY need something more constructive to do....
Should the PTA or the School Board or the City Council look into this?????
Aiko (anonymous) says…
That's funny OMB! Why no striking in the face? Seems to me like flag football or fake backyard wrestling....weak!
blue73harley (anonymous) says…
Maybe it's just me but I always thought DeSoto was spelled without a space.
yeah_right (anonymous) says…
Those DeSoto kids must be bored. I wonder what they will come up with next. What happened to just going out in a field and drinking beer?
shanefivedyes (anonymous) says…
At least they aren't shooting each other, let em fight
jstevens1979 (anonymous) says…
Its called ju-jitsu. You wont find any schools around here that teach it or offer training and practice. I think the police could have found better things to do with their time.
kcwillie87 (anonymous) says…
As a member of the De Soto "fight club" and student of DHS, I'd like to thank the community for their support. The Johnson County Sheriff's Department need to spend more time cracking down on the rampant meth use and labs and a little less time boys just being boys. Perhaps one day we'll be able to start the De Soto Intramural Boxing League.
jstevens1979 (anonymous) says…
Was it really a fight club? I never really heard why these kids were doing this.Boredome? Did the police issue any citations or did they just preach? And what about those backyard wrestling freaks, do they break up their get togethers? People do get hurt at those events.
nealy (anonymous) says…
Yea, they were fighting, I as well was there. I don't think we were bored, we just tried it. No ciatations, I just got a little praeching and they told me to go home. Nobody got hurt it was organized with safety in mind. It's funny that the news has so little to cover that they cover pidly stories like this.
jstevens1979 (anonymous) says…
Was this taking place on private property, without the owners consent?(the fighting)
lilchick (anonymous) says…
See, when I was in HS, we had a corn field/pasture keggers with the drunken fist fight somewhere in the evening. No planned 'fight club', just pure drunken anger. Ahh, those were the days!
jg (anonymous) says…
Since it is illegal and repugnant to most people, dog fighting is pretty under the radar. It is, according to animal control and humane society, pretty rampant. Just cause you haven't heard of something, doesn't make it rampant.....
wonderhorse (anonymous) says…
chick
Don't forget the, uhm, under-the-blanket groping....
kcwillie87 (anonymous) says…
This spot was chosen by certain people, it was on private property
jstevens1979 (anonymous) says…
Was the get together done with the property owners permission? If it was what reason did the police have for breaking the club up?
jstevens1979 (anonymous) says…
I guess they said they did it "before their was a fight"
jstevens1979 (anonymous) says…
It sounds like if you guys organized things, form a ju-jitsu club or something you could probably continue with the gatherings, as long as nothing illegal was going on.
jstevens1979 (anonymous) says…
Boxing is for old folks