Four students were involved in a spontaneous fight at North Whidbey Middle School last week. There were no injuries but the police were called.

“The police determined it was not an attack or assault. It was more of a case where both parties were at fault,” said Oak Harbor School District communications director Joe Hunt.

The altercation happened in the stairwell after school. It appeared that one student offended another, probably by accident, Hunt said.

The fight was mainly between two students but since two other students also got physically involved, they were part of the disciplinary action, Hunt said.

After investigating, the police decided that it was a school issue so all four students were disciplined by the school, Hunt said.

The number of students disciplined for fighting during the first semester of the school year is down by approximately half from prior years for the same time period, Hunt said.

He added that the school district attributes this decrease to the Big Elephant campaign, an anti-bullying effort that began the second semester of last school year.