Stomping holes in the bleachers and throwing full soda cans at the fans, taunting the step team and cheers that hit below the belt. This doesn’t sound like Langley students, but all of these happened at last month’s McLean basketball game.
The infamous game became huge news in the week before winter break after Principal Ragone made an announcement expressing his disappointment in such behavior and asking for students to write apology letters. But should those letters even be necessary in the first place? Rivalries between schools are an important part of the high school experience, but the behavior of both sets of fans was unreasonable.
Reflecting on the game, Ragone said “in my mind, there were two things that happened: the destruction of the bleachers and the treatment of the step team.”
Granted, the McLean fans were clearly anything but innocent, but school spirit never excuses violent or inappropriate behavior from both sides of the bleachers. Understandably, not all of Langley was there, and so all of Langley cannot be blamed. The continued behavior, though, has damaged our reputation both within our school and in the county to the point where students have lost faith in any ability to act appropriately at sporting events.
“It doesn’t matter; people will still act like disgraces,” said senior David Parker.
It’s going to take both the students and the administration together to hold back the wild beast that is becoming the McLean rivalry, but that doesn’t make it impossible. If we go to the games with the hope of a win for our team and avoid getting carried away, we can ensure that games are a safe and great way to support the team. Fortunately, other schools have games like this all the time and we’re very lucky to have this as an exception.