At the Fight Scene

Recently, there has been quite a buzz at school set off by an article in The New Paper about ACJC. I'll spare you the details and just look at the article to see what it's all about.

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Source article: Newspaper article from “Was it a 'Fight Club'?”, The Electric New Paper
Author: Liew Hanqing And Veena Bharwani
Date of article: 29 September 2006
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STUDENTS IN TROUBLE #1
Cops break up JC fracas

IF you thought fight clubs existed only in movies, think again.
First brought to the fore by Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in their 1999 film Fight Club, the concept of clubs, formed for members to fight for fun, appears to have arrived here.

In May, The New Paper reported two such incidents which were recorded on video by students from two secondary schools.

They were allegedly involved in a 'fight club' - where students fought one another for the camera.

In those cases, the fights happened on the school grounds.

Last Tuesday, yet another face-off took place here.

This time, a group of students from Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) gathered at the carpark of an HDB estate near the College.

The New Paper learnt from students at the college that at least 20 to 30 students were at the carpark to witness the fight.

And, despite the school imposing a gag order on staff and students, a number of students claimed that a 'fight club' exists.

They said that the group consisted mainly of first-year students.

The New Paper found two blogs written by students which also mentioned the fight club.

MANY MEMBERS

One first-year student told The New Paper that he had heard from friends that the club had more than 50 members.

He said: 'Some of them were involved in this fight club probably because they thought it was fun.

'Most first-year students should have heard about the club's existence.'

Another first-year student added that the incident occured at a multi-storey carpark opposite ACJC.

She said that most of the students were there as spectators and did not actually fight.

Although she wasn't present, she had heard from a friend that there were both boys and girls at the scene.

'We heard that the students dispersed quickly when the police arrived,' she said.

When contacted by The New Paper, ACJC principal Kelvyna Chan said that there is no fight club in the college.

'ISOLATED INCIDENT'

She described the face-off at the carpark as 'an isolated incident of mischief', and said that the students involved had been reprimanded and counselled.

The police confirmed that the incident took place on 19 Sep.

A resident contacted them last Tuesday about a fight at the carpark.

A police spokesman said they received the call at about 4.20pm. When officers arrived at the scene, they spotted students 'running into a nearby school'.

The spokesman added that the police had used the carpark's CCTV cameras to help identify the culprits.

The police have been in contact with the school regarding three students involved in the fight.

No weapons were used.

- Additional reporting by Lim Jun Xue

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,114543,00.html?

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Source article: Newspaper article from “No fight club in college”, The Electric New Paper
Author: NA
Date of article: 29 September 2006
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IN a faxed response to The New Paper, ACJC principal Kelvyna Chan said there is no fight club in the college.

'There was recently a fight in the multi-storey carpark involving three of our students.

'This was an isolated incident of mischief. No one was injured. The students involved have since been reprimanded and counselled. None of them were expelled.'

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,114540,00.html?

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Well, being me, I just couldn't sit still. So guess what? I wrote back to them. Check it out.

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At the Fight Scene
An article by Seraphim

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I refer to your article, 'Was it a fight club?' (29 September 2006, The Electric New Paper). To answer that directly, no it wasn't.

If you thought fight clubs existed only in movies, think again. If you think they exist in ACJC, really think again.

Study break on 28 September took longer than usual, as research reading for the next day's General Paper on The New Paper took all of the attention. Reading up for school turned out to be reading up on school. The article sensationalised the possibility of a ‘fight club’ back in ACJC.

Wow, a new club and it’s not even listed in the yearbook.

As a proud member of the school (like everyone else), I am obliged to set the record straight. The article mentioned that ‘This time, a group of students from Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) gathered at the carpark of an HDB estate near the College.”. So previously it was at the local dojo. That is hardly reason enough to think that there has been similar past incidents. About the 20 to 30 witnesses and a 50 member fight club, those digits are wrong. So far, there hasn’t been any ‘gag order’ notice on the school internet portal either.

I have to stand by the principal’s claim that there is no fight club in the college. It is interesting to ponder why this particular fight became a media focus. If you ask, say, an ITE student, I’m sure they can supply you with a weekly fight to content with. A previous May report already supplied two videos as evidence. A quick search on Youtube revealed 3246 more.

Fear not, this little conundrum has not discombobulated us students. It merely justified our GP teachers’ claims that the media does have engaging stories. Besides, it has become good inspiration. We’ve always wondered what could beat our special edition collegiate t-shirts. Imagine a limited edition ‘Fight Club’ t-shirt at our upcoming 99.90 store. (Oh! Like, that is so cool! And they cost peanuts!) Another good point learnt from the incident is that all of us can truly trust the local police. They have surveillance at carparks that will happen to focus on juvenile fights at high enough quality to distinguish faces. How efficient can they get?

We understand why there is a dire need for sensational scandals. Why else does Singapore need topless dancers, bar top dancing and casinos? Besides, we know that it might take time for the truth to be realised. Even the Ministry of Education needs time to figure things out. Jack Neo, ‘who spoke against the EM3 system in his hit movie I Not Stupid in 2002’, ‘took six years’ for the MOE ‘to figure it out’.

Quoting from my principal, ‘no one was injured’, so all is good. Even if the fight club were real, it won’t be us who should be worrying.


The writer is a first year student at Anglo-Chinese Junior College. This aggravated person has indeed not heard of the existence of such a club, reads satires for light bedtime reading and was not distracted from revision by any misleading articles.