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MEMPHIS COMMERCIAL-APPEAL COLLIERVILLE, TN Collierville police will charge a total of 31 people, all but three of them under the age of 18, for participating in off-campus fistfights organized by Collierville High School students, officials said Tuesday. Three of those involved are 18 or older, though still in high school, and face charges as adults, said Mark Heuberger, a spokesman for the town. Police were able to identify participants through videos posted on YouTube. Heuberger said police received information that a fight was scheduled to occur Friday, but police patrolled sites of previous encounters and received no reports of any. The episode is similar to others that have occurred nationwide since the 1999 movie "Fight Club," based on a novel of the same name and starring Brad Pitt, became a cult classic. Police arrested one juvenile, who was charged with aggravated assault. Others received summonses to Juvenile Court or citations. Those who fought did so willingly and the fights -- staged in parks, theater and restaurant parking lots -- were prearranged, investigators said. In addition to assault, police said possible charges participants face include disorderly conduct and engaging in unregulated "prize fighting, sparring and other brutal sports." State law makes it a Class C misdemeanor "for any person or persons to engage in what is known as prize fighting or boxing with or without gloves, or in other brutal sport or exhibition, whereby bruising, maiming, or other serious bodily injury may result to the boxers or participants unless regulated" by other statutes. Shelby County Schools officials said because the fights took place off school grounds, they would let police handle the matter.
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