One of the worst feelings I have ever experienced is one that I actually get quite often. Do you ever just realize that in the middle of a conversation the other person isn't listening or isn't interested? That is basically how I feel I have been the past few weeks. I have constantly been trying to stick up for my fellow classmate and brothers on the football team but nobody is listening, especially the media.
First I'd like to say that I participated in freshmen skits for 3 years and had never had an issue. The real reason homecoming was cancelled was a long story but one I am willing to tell. In sequence of events, the story follows. Freshmen skits happened at the end of august to celebrate the end of double sessions, usually it consists of a heavy meal before going to a senior captain's house for skits. Skits usually consist of freshmen acting out scenes that make fun of the seniors and they usually tend to be vulgar because honestly thats how kids make fun of each other now a days. The reason this year it went "wrong" was because a certain student was also made fun of and seeing as how said student wasn't in attendance it wasn't really an issue. The skit that made of the student was promptly stopped halfway through by a senior because he saw that it was getting a little out of hand.
All was well until someone had leaked the information of the student's skit to the student in question and basically he got massively hurt and quit the football team. Not only did he quit the football team but he proceeded to get the administration involved so that he could see the football team get into trouble. The school obviously pursued the sudden revelation brought to them and began to investigate and from there it all went downhill. The athletic department wanted to suspend the seniors from the next game as punishment but there wouldn't be enough players for the game so thats how homecoming was cancelled. Shortly after that decision was made there was another one that stated the football team would have to comply with another list of punishments to "make it right" (which I will explain later).
After Mr Campbell announced to the public that homecoming was cancelled due to "inappropriate behavior at freshmen skits" the media went wild. Not to mention the fact that the school has no authority to cross the threshold of activities that happen off campus. Since the administration was intentionally vague with the information that was put out to the public (to protect the junior's identity), it left the media to put its own spin on the story in whatever way they wanted. I saw articles that included phrases such as "Sex themed party" and "degrading tradition", when obviously that was NOT the case. Not only did the school allow these news sources to degrade the public appearance of the football program and the school but they did nothing to correct news sources when they would say that hazing was suspected.
I could honestly go on for days about how this has affected my home life and how I want to so badly change what is going on around the school but in the end nobody listens so whats the point?
