Connecticut high school teacher started a classroom 'fight club,' police say

Cydney Henderson | The Arizona Republic

Show Caption Hide Caption Substitute teacher allegedly ran in-class 'Fight Club' A substitute Connecticut teacher faces multiple criminal charges after being accused of running a “fight club” inside a classroom during school hours

A former substitute teacher at a Connecticut high school faces multiple charges after he was accused of running a ‘fight club’ among students in his classroom, police said.

Ryan Fish, 23, encouraged Montville High School students to battle it out while other students recorded on their cellphones and cheered, police said.

Fish was charged Thursday with two counts of risk of injury to a child, four counts of reckless endangerment and one count of breach of peace, according to the State of Connecticut Judicial Branch.

“The truth is, I’m an idiot and wanted to befriend them," Fish told investigators, according to his arrest affidavit.

The Montville Police Department started investigating the alleged "fight club" last December when a social worker reported a 15-year-old student was traumatized after being robbed and beaten by his classmates.

Investigators soon learned Fish, who was 22 at the time, had been fired after school officials caught wind of the "fight club" inside of his math class in October, according to the affidavit.

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The school even had cell phone footage that surfaced.

In one video, the affidavit states, two students openly slap each other with “full force” as a visibly present Fish gives directions to get “away from the door.”

Another video shows Fish moving a trash can out of the way to prolong the altercation. The fight only ended after one of the students “threw up and was holding his head,” a participant said.

“I would let them be teenagers and let them get their energy out,” Fish told police when they interviewed him in January. “I will admit that I did at one point egg them on.”

Several students involved in the fights told police the slap boxing fights had timed rounds, which police say indicates an organized event, according to the affidavit.

Additional videos showed the substitute teacher separating two boys with outstretched arms. Then, police said, Fish moved back “while thrusting his hands down” and smiling and laughing to commence the fight.

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In total, Fish told police there were four fights that occurred in his classroom during school hours between September and October.

Some boys from the Connecticut high school described the substitute teacher’s math room as a “kick back class.”

“I just try to be the teacher that kids could come to and actually express themselves and actually work through their issues,” Fish told police. "Kind of have a social thing."

His laid-back approach went too far, police said.

Fish reportedly told students stories about smoking marijuana and other drugs, let students draw inappropriate pictures on the whiteboard and even shared his Snapchat address to the class.

One 16-year-old student in a fight called Fish his “mentor.”

“I’m immature,” Fish told police in January, after referencing how close in age he is in age to his students.

No one at the school reported the "fight club" to the police, according to the arrest affidavit.

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Brian Levesque, the Montville Public Schools Superintendent, told The Arizona Republic he understands the frustration that, "we didn’t notify them of this so-called 'student slapping horseplay' in a timely fashion.”

However, he said he didn't understand the scope of the matter until now.

“I took immediate action in firing the substitute teacher that allowed this to happen," he said in an email.

The statement added: "At the time, based on the initial video that I viewed and the information I was provided, I didn’t feel that this was a law enforcement matter. Had I known then, what I know now, yes, I should have contacted police."