Hometown Backlash

The following is a message I intended to send to our hometown newspaper in response to the articles on school spirit featured in last week's Teen Beat section. I found however, that it could not be submitted under conditions of anonymity since it wasn't a response to one of the teen columnists' articles and all editorials sent to the PB require the name of the writer. Thus, under fear of negative response to the piece, mostly by people thinking I was trying to make myself up to be better than all those discussed in the following article, and that I was just being some whiny kid trying to act noble, I instead have relegated it to this, my blog, where only those who know me better than that may view it and so it doesn't go to complete waste. Also, if possible, it would be beneficial to actually read that article to better understand this one, though it is not absolutely necessary.


Megan Wetzel's portrayal of our region's schools as places where school spirit and its benefits flourish, while a wholesome wish is unfortunately hardly more than false pretense, or at best only an abridged version of the truth. To depict spirit as a way that the area's, specifically Rochester’s, schools open up to diversity is to deceive the readers. Oh yes, Rochester's schools are very accepting of diversity, so accepting they start cheers mocking they stereotyped societal classes of the opposing school's students. This isn't a one-sided issue either. After having such a cheer thrown to my school's crowd at a hockey game from another Rochester high school, I've never been more ashamed of my school then after our fans subsequently embraced the jeer, and flaunted it in a returning chant. Sadly, it didn't end there. At all of our school's following inter-city hockey games, the jest continued, as fans from my school wore money in their hats and passed out fake bills to the crowd.
I have friends at both of Rochester's other public high schools, but to call the supporting of our schools when on opposing sides in a sports match "friendly competition" or something that fosters comradery between the schools could hardly be further from the truth. After such a match, I'm actually slightly afraid that somehow, my ties with those friends have been severed through an unwritten, unspoken agreement simply due to the maliciousness of the exchanged cheers. I've never seen something so pointlessly and blatantly divide people. It puts the students in battling factions that go beyond a rivalry and into a hostile near-hatred for one another. Some may portray this as just a good way to show support for one's school and claim that it's all in the spirit of friendship, that they don't actually dislike each other, no matter how harsh the cheers become. I wish that were true. If it is, why then, does the visibility of security guards seem to increase ten-fold at such games? After a particular football game last year, a near riot broke out as the students from the opposing schools locked horns at the exit gate. Many students just use sporting events as an excuse to exhibit such inappropriate behaviors. Beyond just fighting and taunting, often fans use the games as reason to "celebrate" by taking or consuming chemical substances, and trust me, it isn't what the commercials would consider "using responsibly". Is school spirit a good thing? Yes. But what often goes on in Rochester these days definitely crosses the line of what constitutes school spirit.
Are there still students who know how to toe the line and promote their school spirit in a way beneficial to themselves and their community? Once again, yes, quite a few. These are the students who cheer for their team, and for the fun of coming together, not against the other team. They're not the ones who're often heard and seen though. In a sense, they're the silent majority, and often enough they cave and join the others in, at the least, yelling the verbally abusing cheers. The prospect of school spirit does indeed bring out the "true colors" of Rochester's students.