MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Video of a vicious fight at East High School is being shared by students online.
Two girls were suspended after throwing punches at each other.
A parent of one of the girls can be seen standing by and watching in the video.
Rochelle Strickland is the mother of the other girl involved in the fight.
She told WREG her daughter, Rene Holt, should not have fought and deserves the suspension she got.
However, she wants to know why the fight went on so long without anyone from the school trying to stop it.
The brutal fight was recorded by a student and uploaded to Facebook.
The girl in the grey t-shirt is Rene.
She’s an 11th grader and told WREG Wednesday was the second time she has been jumped at school.
“It didn’t die down,” she said. “There are still girls that don’t like me for no reason.”
Strickland said she knows her daughter is partly to blame for the fight, but what she doesn’t understand is why no adults took action to stop it.
The fight picks back up in the school parking lot. In that video, you can see a man in black, who is the other girl’s stepfather.
He stands by while the girls begin hitting each other again.
Strickland finds that shocking.
“You should have stopped it right then,” she said. “You could have told your child to get in the car. ”
After a while, the step-father breaks the girls up, but not before Rene was left with a big black eye.
“There should be more people around to help someone out if someone is trying to come at them,” Rene said.
Shelby County Schools told WREG the fights happened after school hours and there were not many staff members there.
They are investigating the fight with the help of Memphis police.
Strickland said she wants the school to do more to protect her child, so her child is not forced to protect herself.
“That was a hurting thing to see your child being pulled and yanked and nothing can be done about it, and no one tried to help.”
Rene said there are no cameras in that stairwell, and students choose to fight there, because they know that.
Shelby County Schools told WREG they are not sure if there are cameras in that area, but said say they will let us know if they plan on adding extra security measures.