Fighting is “just stupid”, 17-year-old ‘Lashae' told The Royal Gazette recently, although just three years ago she found herself before Bermuda's courts for stabbing another teen girl.

She's not surprised at all that girls are increasingly fighting among themselves. It is completely acceptable behaviour among teens today, she says.

“Girls nowadays have no respect and no self-esteem. Most of them are going through a lot of problems and sometimes fighting is the only way they can take their frustrations out.”

Lashae's particular struggle with a teen rival began when she was 12 years old.

“There was a girl who was a bully and everyone was afraid of her. I stood up to her one day and that was how it all started,” she said.

The girl spat on her at school and rather than let the insulting incident pass, she confronted her, Lashae said.

While it was not violent at that stage, retaliation was swift. “Later on, she found me and beat me with a baseball bat.”

Years of violent clashes between the two girls followed.

“Every day she would push me and want to fight with me. I was attacked with a baseball bat, a cane, an umbrella, a bottle, a helmet. It was just constant fighting and arguments.”

Police and counsellors who are dealing with fighting between teen girls told The Royal Gazette the fights tend to stem from situations of mutual antagonism between two girls rather than acts of random violence.

In fights between teen girls, there are few victims. In most cases both girls are aggressors.

Lashae said the teachers at her school knew all about the fighting - much of which took place on school grounds - but nothing was done to stop it.

She started high school four months before her fellow combatant did and feels the girl should not have been placed in the same Government school given many knew their volatile history.

“The first day she went there, I was walking along and she attacked me with a bottle.”

The very next day, the stabbing occurred.

“She came to my classroom in the morning and attacked me with an umbrella. The fight went from there.

Lashae told The Royal Gazette, her teacher told her she was wanted at the classroom door.

She found her cousin waiting for her, but hiding around the corner was her violent rival.

In the frantic clash that followed, Lashae said she is not sure where the knife came from. Ultimately, however, the other girl lay stabbed and bleeding.

Leshae was convicted of assault and sentenced to 18 months probation. She was 14 years old.

She still feels her punishment was too harsh and that her rival got off completely.

She told The Royal Gazette everyone assumed the knife was hers because she carried a pocketknife for protection.

“Where I stayed, I didn't feel safe. A lot of older men used to run around and there were attacks and rapes. I used to have to walk home alone at night. With the knife, I felt, if anyone tried something I'd be alright. I was more confident.”

Although no blood was found on her knife, Police and the courts determined she had brought a knife to school with the intention of stabbing her rival, she said.

That is not how she interprets the incident.

“I feel she provoked the fight and got what she deserved,” she said.

Even today, she and her rival still clash, but Lashae has learned to control her temper.

“I know now that she won't do something in front of people, so I don't let it bother me. Sometimes I do get upset about what she is saying but I just leave so that I won't be tempted to fight. I just don't pay her any mind,” she said.

After the stabbing, Lashae was eventually placed in another senior school.

While she hoped life would be easier for her, she said her reputation for violence followed her.

Rather than being intimidated by it, however, her fellow female classmates took it as challenge to try and provoke her.

That is the climate young girls are living in today, she contends.

“They would say ‘you think you're bad' and ‘you think we're supposed to be scared of you'. They criticised the way I looked and the way I was dressed.

“I took it, but I was glad graduation was around the corner because it was getting to me.”

Learning to express herself more freely has helped her avoid violence, however.

Now, Lashae tells people what she thinks and what she feels, even if it is difficult.

“I sleep better at night because of it,” she said. “I don't hide my feelings anymore.”

Although she followed a rough path, Lashae said she would not change her past.

“If it had not happened, I would not have done most of the things I have done in my life since then.

“It made me a stronger and a more confident person.

“But I can tell other girls, it is not worth it, because I have been there.”