KEARNS, Utah — Parents Amber Spencer and Katie Martin say fights are happening around their children's school in Kearns and that 'Instagram fight accounts' could be why.
"These kids are getting jumped, they're getting jumped from behind, they're getting the crap beat out of them," said Spencer.
Spencer believes her child has been a victim of the violence at the library.
"A lot of these kids don't deserve to be targeted for a fight for kudo points or it makes them feel like they're big and bad and rule the town," Martin said.
The Unified Police Department says they have seen more fights among current and former students from a nearby school at the Kearns Library and surrounding neighborhoods as students go to and from school.
"Our school resource officers have had to push themselves from being inside the schools sometimes to being out where this behavior is happening and take some action," said Sgt. Melody Cutler.
The Granite School District says the district and school officials aren't able to enforce policies outside of their property, but they still encourage parents to make them aware -- especially if it's impacting the student's safety and well-being at school.
"Student safety and staff safety continue to be of paramount concern, so as we continue to see new threats and challenges arise we continue to shift resources to address those," Horsley said.
Horsley and parents like Spencer and Martin believe social media is contributing to the violence.
"They're not just happen-stance; meeting at the library or some other locations they're coordinating those fights or other altercations via social media," said Horsley.
Spencer also brought up the idea of capable and willing parents would take shifts to monitor places like the library and surrounding areas to help deter kids from fighting.
"Kids are thinking it's cool, it's not cool, we should be supporting each other and lifting each other up, we shouldn't be fighting each other," Spencer said.
While the district and police say they're doing what they can to protect students and stop the violence, they're pleading with parents to do their part as well by monitoring their kid's social media and reporting assaults to the police.
"Parents need to be educating their kids, violence is not the answer, absolutely not the answer, and start supporting each other and not attacking each other," Spencer said.
