Ahhh, Texas

You know, Texas and the inhabiting Texans take a lot of shit from a lot of people including yours truly. A lot of it is probably uncalled for and just playing off some bad stereotypes.

But...

Dallas school accused of staging fights

The Dallas school system was rocked by allegations Thursday that staff members at an inner-city high school made students settle their differences by fighting bare-knuckle brawls inside a steel cage. The principal and other employees at South Oak Cliff High knew about the cage fights and allowed the practice to continue, according to a 2008 report by school system investigators.

...

The report, first obtained by The Dallas Morning News, describes two instances of fighting in an equipment cage in a boys' locker room between 2003 and 2005. It was not clear from the report whether there were other fights. Superintendent Michael Hinojosa told the newspaper that there were "some things that happened inside of a cage" and called the fights "unacceptable."

...

The allegations came to light during a grade-fixing investigation that eventually cost the high school its 2005 and 2006 state basketball titles. School officials were suspected of altering students' grades so that they could remain eligible to play for South Oak Cliff, a perennial basketball powerhouse in one of the poorer sections of the city.

The newspaper reported Thursday that Angela Williamson, a parent, said she was ignored when she attempted to bring the matter to the attention of district administrators after her son, Cortland, told her that students stood around clapping and screaming while watching a fight he participated in. He and another student fought for five to ten minutes in the cage in 2004. She said the students acted as if they were in an arena.

Wow. Just... wow.

Now, granted... from the description of the school as being in one of the poorer sections of the city, I'm going to use some blatant profiling to say... "They could have been settling their issues in a far worse manner."

But this is the kind of thing that makes Dana White wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat because there's no chance in Hell that any TV report of this story doesn't mention "ultimate fighting," "cage fighting," or something of the like. It's the same kind of thing that gives people like John McCain ammunition to call MMA "human cockfighting." All they would've needed was one of these kids to drop dead and you could have had a big time rollback on states allowing MMA inside their borders as irrational as that would be.

Oh, and the fact that this came to light during a grade-fixing investigation is just the icing on the cake. It's not bad enough that "institutions of higher learning" pull this kind of shit so that they can get their names in the headlines for going to a Bowl game or a tournament but now high schools think it's a good idea too.

So, grade-fixing and students beating the crap out of one another for the amusement of the masses?

It's gotta be Texas. Hook 'em Horns.

I was about to post this but one more thing just came to mind. When I was in high school, I always thought it would be awesome for a school to invest in building an American Gladiators course for gym class...

...but this, as Balki Bartokomous would say, is ridiculous.