The video that we saw surface across different media platforms and news outlets on last Friday was horrid. People were mad when they saw a boy cornered in one of our school’s bathrooms with three boys towering over him and attacking him.
But the thing that the general public isn’t aware of is that, as far as adminstration knows, the cornered student agreed to meet up with three other students in the school bathroom to potentially fight. And once administration was made aware of the incident, they continued to hold fast to the one and done policy. They are following through with expulsion and not condoning any sort of fighting or violence at SHS, unlike the picture that many people have painted.
We, The Journal, know that this violent video doesn’t represent SHS. It doesn’t represent the six core values in our mission statement or the inclusion that we try so hard to enforce at this school.
Obviously the incident is not something to be taken lightly. What happened was unnecessary, inexcusable and wrong. However, we can not let this be a defining part of our school. It’s true that sometimes a few bad apples can ruin the bunch, but that does not have to hold true here. What we should be paying attention to is what the ripe and fresh apples do for the bunch.
It’s easy to see a rough patch of students and think that this represents our student body as a whole, but anyone that’s in this building daily could attest to the fact that the good apples, by far, outweigh the bad. We have so many amazing clubs and teams at this school and dedicated sponsors and coaches. On Nov. 11, Perry Township held a celebration to congratulate all of the township’s hardworking students and coaches, which included many people from SHS. Our Spell Bowl team is heading to State tomorrow, the football team went to Sectionals, students from publications like The Journal and The Anchor have won state and national awards for their work, and there’s so much more. The hard work of these staff and students doesn’t go unnoticed, even when the bad apples distort the view.
The administration tries their hardest to ensure a positive learning environment at SHS, but we, along with administration, feel that it’s more dependent on the students to make this ideal environment a reality. As one of our core values states, we are responsible for our personal growth and learning. If we continue to be bystanders and let potential bad apples get through the bunch, nothing will improve. Our great administration will try as hard as they can and get their job done day in and day out, but at the end of the day, it’s on the students to make SHS the great place that it is.
We always hear to not make assumptions, but this is especially true at our school. We are a diverse school that has a lot to offer, and we cannot let the bad apples outweigh the good.