High School Students Making the News

It's that silly time of the school year for high schools and middle schools. However, recently two stories involving this age group made the news.

At several high schools in the South (and maybe in other places too), there is a long-standing tradition of senior pranks despite being discouraged by the school authorities. And it's understandable; whereas generations of old were content to write in chalk on sidewalks, put a flock of plastic flamingos on the school lawn, or perhaps paint "Seniors '75" on a water tower, latter day seniors sometimes go in for more serious acts of vandalism. Things can get out of hand sometimes.

This recently occurred at a high school in Tennessee somewhere near Chattanooga. During the senior prank approximately 100 young miscreants entered the school and performed assorted acts of vandalism including toilet paper-rolling the inside of the school, dumping garbage cans, smearing vegetable oil and ketchup on the wall, peeing on the floor, putting goldfish in the toilets, and leaving a dead possum behind. Some hid marbles under straw by the door, intending to cause teachers to take a header!

However, their secrecy was compromised: they were caught in the act on tape!

When school opened the next day, they kept the students in the gym while the teachers had to mop up the classroom and halls! (I got that And I guess one had to dispose of the corpus delecti! Now, in my opinion, that totally sucked!

Here's why: The teachers did nothing wrong; yet they were called on to do a disgusting task and, in effect, were punished for the bad kids' deeds! Ugh! To compound the insult, the kids got to wait in the gym while the teachers did something that they were not hired to do, and probably got a good laugh out of it! To compound the problem, a few teachers were injured due to the oil and water!

Anyway, the School Resource Officer was fired by the Sheriff, and the Principal was suspended without pay pending a probe of what happened. What in the world went on there? Anyway, the students who participated in the vandalism were banned from graduation, but had to pick up their diplomas on the day after graduation. 

I imagine there was a considerable pall over the school and community. There must be more to the story. Why was the Principal and the School Resource Officer also punished?

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An additional commotion broke out as the result of a posed picture. Some high schoolers in Colorado went viral for a different reason: a pre-prom picture. Specifically, eight students at Chapparal High School in Colorado posed for a picture in which a Confederate flag and assault rifles were used as props. This brought the wrath of God or Progressives (or maybe both) on them! Now I wonder if the fuss, ado, and such was really worth it. 

Okay, it probably did not represent the best judgment; but the media response to it is like using a drone strike on a crawfish hill! Looking at the group's pose, it has all the hallmarks of a comic pose or even satire. Even the girls forming their hands into guns contributes to this.  At the bottom of this I sense an inside joke that outsiders missed.

Anyway, the group portrait would not thrill either the N.R.A. or the U.D.C. I can imagine this tableau appearing on a comedy skit ridiculing both groups; and high schoolers enjoy jerking adults' chains!

By the way, I think that the one on the right with the assault rifle had an outstanding prom dress! She has excellent taste in clothing, but maybe not in accessories!