Following Liberal MLA Don Inverarity's revelation that Yukon high school students are posting videos of fights on the Internet, a local youth advocate has pointed out it's not the first time such videos have appeared.

"Kerry Huff (the former principal of Porter Creek Secondary School) dealt with this same thing a few years ago,” Dave Blottner, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Whitehorse, told the Star.

"He suspended everyone, the people fighting and the people who were watching. I think that's the right precedent.”

But the principal of Watson Lake Secondary, Kirk Jensen, says he isn't taking any steps to deal with the most recent videos "because it's not happening on school property, on school time.”

However, at least one of the videos currently on YouTube shows the town's high school in the background.

"I have spoken to the superintendent about organized fights in the community, but not about these specific fights on YouTube,” Jensen said, adding he has also informed the RCMP.

Jensen noted he has not seen any of the videos but has heard rumours about them.

The fights currently posted on YouTube are obviously organized, often with a person who appears to be acting as a referee and a noisy crowd cheering the boys on (all of the six videos viewed by the Star involve boys as the fighters).

In at least one of the videos, the boys are wearing the same style of gloves used in mixed martial arts fighting.

Several videos go on for at least three minutes, and by the end, both boys' faces and hands are smeared with blood.

One video poster goes so far as to dub over a song from hardcore band Slipknot.

Two of the six YouTube posts were posted in 2008, while the other four were posted in the spring and summer of this year.

Although Blottner hadn't seen any of the videos until they were brought to his attention Wednesday, he said he and his staff have heard rumours about them.

"We've tried to keep a very open line of communication with our kids,” he said of how the Boys and Girls Club has dealt with the rumours.

One of the first steps he takes is pointing out the consequences of Internet infamy.

"Social networking is part of their lives, and I don't know how many youth organizations have a policy on how to deal with some of the consequences. We start by asking kids, ‘What does that mean for you in the future? What if your boss sees that?'

"We try to give them some perspective on how these things can affect them.”

The main message, though is less about personal consequences and more about social responsibility.

"Standing there watching a fight is not OK. Posting a fight is not OK.”

No one in the Department of Education knew about the videos until yesterday, according to assistant deputy minister Christie Whitley.

She said since learning of the videos from Wednesday's legislative debate, staff in her department have been in contact with the Watson Lake Secondary School.

"We're continuing to do research because no one in Watson Lake has heard about these things.

"The principal is in regular contact with his superintendent (Mike Woods), and has never mentioned anything of this kind .... Mike is in Watson Lake and he's talking to everybody at the school and nobody's heard about it.”

So far, police have little to say about the videos. An officer at the Watson Lake detachment said he had heard about the videos, but said any comments would have to come from RCMP spokesman Sgt. Don Rogers.

Rogers confirmed that police have received complaints about the videos, but could not say when they received the information or from whom.

Fighting is not always a crime; in fact, it is an Olympic sport in the case of boxing and a huge spectator sport in the case of mixed martial arts, but as Rogers pointed out, the line between legal and illegal is a thin one.

"People can consent to fight and then stop and everything's fine,” Rogers said. "On the other hand, one person may want to stop and it doesn't, and then it's assault.”