By Trina A. San Agustin
Variety News Staff

THERE is now a strong partnership between the Guam Public School System and event coordinators associated with Pacific Extreme Combat, or PXC, Education Superintendent Luis Reyes told Variety.
Reyes made the comments after a meeting between PXC coordinators and GPSS yesterday afternoon.
“The meeting was very fruitful. They (PXC) support us and agree with us that violence should not be tolerated,” Reyes said.
PXC coordinator Eli Monge told Variety that he is not happy with what high school students are doing on school grounds.
Last week, a video was found showing George Washington High School students mimicking a mixed martial arts fight in the school hallway. The footage was also posted on a popular video sharing Web site, YouTube.com.
The discovery of the video floored GPSS officials, students, the Guam Police Department, and the community. The public demand for student safety on school grounds became louder.
Now, GPSS officials are taking just about every road to prevent events like this from happening again at George Washington High School or other public schools on Guam.
GPSS has forged a partnership with local mixed martial arts fight coordinators and fighters. What they got was a campaign to stop school violence and keep students in school.
Monge told Variety that PXC will air some television commercials that push the “No Violence in School” campaign starting next week as a way to deter students from fighting in and out of school.
Monge said yesterday’s meeting was a good one.
“In all of our events, we are going to have the GPSS logo…and will push for no violence in school. This is a good partnership,” Monge added.
He said there will be more PXC involvement in the upcoming school year.
“At the beginning of the school year, some of the PXC fighters and I will be greeting the high school students with reading materials that we are putting together. GPSS and the Government of Guam will not spend a dime. This will all be paid for by PXC. We are trying to do all that we can do on our side,” he added.
Monge told Variety that what the students are doing is “sad and embarrassing.”
“It is frustrating because…GPSS is trying to figure out what to do, and they have no funds. They only have so many school aids for the whole department. The lack of funding makes it a problem because they cannot watch these kids,” said Monge.
Monge added that students are “getting the wrong message.”
“I think that they are getting the idea from YouTube.com. I went to the Web site and searched for ‘kid fights’ and many show kid fights on Guam and from the mainland,” he added.
Meanwhile, Reyes wants to keep the relationship strong between GPSS and GPD. He encourages high school students to attend the Police Week fair today in Tiyan.
“We want to see students and parents go there as part of our effort to establish a relationship with the police department,” Reyes said.
Students of George Washington High School and other public high schools will be attending, he added.
Investigation continues
GPD continues to probe the incident at the Mangilao campus.
Originally, police had 10 individuals in custody for questioning. However, police are mum on whether anyone was arrested or charged with any crime in connection with the taped fights.
Officials did say they are looking into other public high schools and middle schools for any more of these “organized mixed martial arts school fights.”