‘What sort of tradition hurts people'

To the editor: What a contrast! On page 16 of the June 16th Advertiser was a list of 180 awards given to outstanding Warwick Valley High School students for academics, drama, music, service (sports has a night of their own awards) and 16 awards for citizenship alone! I’m proud of those students. But on page one was the headline: “Students say food fight became a near riot.” The article goes on to say that a food fight is “a senior tradition.” What sort of tradition is one that hurts people? For those who would say that this was a prank or fun that got out of hand, I ask: What sort of “fun” do you get from hurting others? Who was hurt? How about the student who got hit in the jaw with an apple (like my daughter did a few years ago), or the girl who throws away the blouse with ketchup stains she can’t clean out, or the cafeteria cook who feels terrible about the food she prepared, smeared all over the floor, or the custodial staff who repeatedly clean up messes they didn’t make, or the taxpayers who pay to repair the ceiling or Dr. Greenhall who is trying so creatively to improve community relations? Obviously, planning went into this “tradition” (see, MySpace quotes). How about planning a new tradition for next year? Something really fun that is constructive. How about those 180 award students spear-heading this planning or, at least taking the initiative to head-off another round of destruction? How about the five students who were arrested and their parents volunteering to do repair work around the school? How about letters of apology to the administration from every one of the MySpace contributors to the nonsense? I have voted “YES” for every school budget for the last 30 years. I’ll be watching to see how WVHS students respond to a plea for them to treat their fellow human beings decently. Sincerely, Dorothy Bacon Warwick