Five Alberta teenagers have been charged with inciting bullying after police intervened at the beginning of a fight outside a high school.

Four boys and one girl, all 13 or 14, face paying a $100 fine or attending a bullying workshop with their parents if they are convicted under the year-old bylaw.

The charges were laid after a Nov. 16 altercation outside St. Mathew's school that attracted 11 carloads of teens from another high school.

St. Mathew's principal Darren Brick and RCMP Const. Richard Cruchley caught wind of the lunch hour fight and brought it to an end after just one shove.

The bullying bylaw in Rocky Mountain House, west of Red Deer, is more sweeping than those in some other Canadian communities because it not only targets bullies, but also people who cheer on or encourage taunting, harassment and fights.

The charges against the five teens stem from the circumstances that led to the confrontation.

Brick said it apparently started with students telling one youth that the other had said something bad about him. It went back and forth from there. Soon the dispute spread over the internet.

But when the boys met to pummel each other, they didn't even know what the other looked like.