SPASH STUDIE: Security or Crowd Control?

Photo+by+Jackson+Fox+

Photo by Jackson Fox

Chandler Pallen, Hour 1

It’s two minutes left in the third quarter at the white out homecoming game, you hear commotion behind you and when you look back, you see a girl crying, coming down the aisle towards the front of the student section. Confusion is what many students felt at that moment, including myself who found what was happening very intriguing. “What happened?” “What’s going on?” people asked while five seniors walked to the top of the student section. And the only thing that made it more confusing is that it happened twice. Of course, this was no ordinary game on September 23rd at Georke Stadium. And neither was the reaction of students or administration. So what caused this chaos? And what was done to stop it?

Studie Problematic?

The first problem at the football game was a student in the sophomore section yelling a profanity at a cheerleader. Multiple people took offense to what this student had to say. Most of the student section watched these five seniors step up to take care of the student. They walked through the stands to get to this student and demanded that he was kicked out of the student section for what he said. Assistant principal Mrs. Melville stepped up to this commotion and dispersed these seniors and had a firm talk with the student who had yelled.

The second problem that started was that reportedly a different kid who did not attend SPASH was throwing various items, including change, at students. Freshmen Audery Clubb walked down and informed these seniors of what was happening. Everyones eyes followed the seniors as silence swept over the section as the seniors went to attempt to kick out this delinquent; when shortly later a security guard also went to the top of the section.  I spoke with one of these seniors, Jaiden King, to get more insight on what happened. but unfortunately none of the people causing these problems were kicked out. And the reason these seniors stepped up was “Teachers, and kids were all talking about kicking the misbehaving students out. We just decided to do something,” according to King. This raises multiple questions about security at these games and how administrators are taking care of the student section. 

Student Security

I sat down with Assistant Principal Mrs. Melville. According to Melville SPASH games have security up top, in front and on the ground. She also stated “one thing we’ve considered is maybe more eyes in the stands.” This would mean more security for students, and this would undoubtedly make the student section safer. Along with this I asked Melville her thoughts on the ‘crowd control’ with seniors taking security into their own hands. “While they had the right idea,” she stated, “Upperclassmen going up to different sections to deal with misbehaving students can cause a sort of mob mentality.” 

 Security and the safety of students is important at all after school events and games. SPASH games are also not major league games, and nobody is the perfect security guard for the  studie. But the most important thing is, if you see a student misbehaving at a game, say something!