Student drinking. Assault. Hazing.
How could an event designed to boost school spirit get so out of control?
That’s what many parents are wondering after Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School landed in the news one week ago for those very activities during its annual — and much anticipated – Color Day.
Held Oct. 20 at the culmination of Spirit Week, students were supposed to demonstrate school spirit by wearing class colors. But some went too far, resulting in three being cited by police for possessing alcohol and another who has “received police and school consequences for assault,” according to a story reported on Tattlerextra, the school’s online newspaper.
Police were called to the school because of the drinking and a local TV news crew working nearby found out. Later that day, B-CC made the news. On Monday, Principal Karen Lockard cancelled all future Color Days.
No doubt some parents and students think that the presence of the media has blown the incidents out of proportion – that it really was just a few out-of-control students who have ruined a fun annual tradition for the rest of the school.
But evidence is mounting that Color Day may have become a ticking time bomb over the years. Consider these comments posted on the website for the Tattlerextra, the school’s online newspaper, after Lockard’s announcement:
“The psychological issues are not only in the victims, but also in those who take pleasure in beating poor freshmen to pulp. In the end, it is the perfect opportunity for an average high school student to experiment with a sadistic inner self, tainted throughout the years, by this tradition of brutality and hate, fostered by the separation of colors, which further encourages this hate.”
And this: “I think the original purpose for Color Day is lost in translation. A day meant to demonstrate school unity and class pride has become a day for revealing superiority through beatings and ketchup-squirting. How does this prove one grade is better than the other? It doesn’t.”
And from a news story announcing the cancellation:
“Many students noted that hazing and intimidation of freshmen occurred throughout the day. One parent reported that someone had covered his 9th grade son with ketchup.”
Ketchup? Really?
Two parents told me that their freshman daughter had been afraid to go to school that day, worried that she’d be targeted. They sent her, but she texted them repeatedly throughout the day, asking to be picked up.
Later, after hearing about the hazing and that at least one student ended up in a hospital emergency room, the parents wondered whether they should have kept their daughter home.
It doesn’t matter if the majority of students weren’t bothered by the day’s events. The fact that even one kid — in an age when bullying has become a national concern – is afraid to go to school should raise alarm. And it appears more than just a few students had been afraid. “Color day always scared me. mobs everywhere, glad it’s finally gone,” one wrote on the website.
Maybe it’s time to reevaluate the merit of events that pit one class against another. Here’s one student’s idea posted online: “Transform Color Day into a whole school event, to have everyone dress in blue and gold. At least this way, hazing will decrease.”
It’s a good thought, but it doesn’t seem likely that cancelling Color Day — much less transforming it – will ease what seems to have become an entrenched expression of class rivalry.
As one student wrote online, “…what else did you expect Mrs. Lockard to do? It is ridiculous to let this happen year after year, the seniors acting up and not having to suffer the consequences. She can’t stop us from wearing our colors or having a storm-in, it will just no longer be official. Color Day is awesome.”
