More than a dozen Rome High School students arrested for fighting, part of nationwide trend

ROME, Ga. - Underage rage at Rome High School has led to classroom chaos.

Rome police say officers have responded to multiple fights at the school over the last several days.

Those fights landed 17 students in cuffs, charged with battery or party to the crime of battery.

"What starts out as a small one-on-one fight can accelerate very quickly fueled by social media rumors and misinformation," said Ken Trump, President of National School Safety and Security Services.

Trump is a school safety expert. He says nationwide school fights are just one of several problems on school campuses that are on the rise.

"As students return to school from COVID we've seen an increase in some emotional stressors and anxiety, aggression fights, and even weapons confiscations and use in schools," he said.

In Clayton County, fights are way up. To be exact, the superintendent says brawls are up a whopping 200% in the first 12 days of the year.

"This creates an environment that is very much in direct opposition to what is needed for students to learn at very high levels," said Dr. Morcease Beasley, the Clayton County Schools Superintendent.

School systems are now urging parents to remind students of policies and expectations. 

For Trump, he says the best way out of this increase in school violence is the human factor.

"We can have all the technology in the world, the security products, the hardware, and equipment but we need to have the adult engagement with kids, the supervision, the relationships, the early interventions, to de-escalate conflicts," he said.

FOX 5 reached out to Rome City Schools about the fights at the high school, but the system says it does not comment on student discipline matters