Most high schools have their rival, that team they long to beat more than any other opponent. At Olympia, it's Capital, and at W.F. West (Chehalis), it's Centralia. On Friday, November 3, 1995, Centralia traveled to Chehalis to try to best the Bearcats in their annual football matchup. In the November seventh edition of The Chronicle (the local newspaper), Sandy Spencer wrote in her Letter to the Editor:
"Both teams played hard and at halftime were still holding each other at one touchdown each. At halftime the events were fun and the teams' fans were all laughing and cheering their schools on. Both cities were enjoying the competitions together!"
Little did Spencer know that there was a person or persons on the roof of the stadium. They had a blowup doll dressed in Centralia Tiger paraphernalia, a rope, and an abundance of imagination. They tied the doll to the stadium roof and dropped it over the edge. Watching the swinging body left many people laughing. It also infuriated many people, including Spencer, who felt so strongly about the situation that she wrote into the newspaper condemning it. In her letter, she went on to say:
"In a total lack of concern, a body is hung by the neck by a rope from the top of the stadium! It was not a mascot--it was a plastic human body, hung by the neck and wearing orange. Was this done by the Chehalis school as a joke? With teen suicide on the increase, what kind of example was that? It showed no respect of human life! Here hung a body above the crowd. Sports are supposed to be a way to inspire the youth to learn life goals and strategies, not how to kill your competition or opponent. This apparently must have been approved by the authority of the Chehalis school because not just anybody is allowed on the roof. Where was their school pride? What are they teaching there--last year it was rats, this year a hanged body. What to expect next year?"
The rat incident she is referring to was when football players (most of whom were seniors) on last year's Bearcat team attempted "satanic rituals"; which included the use of rats.
This letter generated many more letters to The Chronicle. In a November ninth letter Marcia A. Greenfield wrote:
"While I agree that the figure hung in effigy was in poor taste, it hardly is a promotion of teen-age suicide. It was simply a teen-age prank."
On November eleventh even more letters appeared in defense of the prank. Students Mike Van Dyke and Joe Clinton wrote:
"It should be brought to the attention of the readers of The Chronicle that certain Centralia High School students vandalized our high school on the eve of the Centralia-Chehalis football matchup (On Nov. 3). Written in chalk, comments such as "you (Chehalis students, faculty, and administration) suck d..." and "Bearcats suck" were signed "CHS."
We at Oblivion believe that "d..." is a censored version of the word "dick." This was either done by the writers or by The Chronicle. Anyway, the letter went on to say:
"How can one expect W.F. West students not to react? Such a display of blatant disregard for school property could not be ignored by a student body with our immense school pride."
On that same day, there was a letter from student Todd Nilsen that said:
"We all know that the "hanging" was not approved by Chehalis authorities and that this incident was a joke. Also, we're kids. Of course it was wrong for some idiot to hang a doll from the top of the stadium, but most teen-agers do some pretty idiotic stuff when they're young."
This incident and the reactions that followed raise some questions. How far can a prank go before it becomes indecent or downright appalling? Is this "disrespect" a direct effect of a school's encouragement of "school pride?" Is it all just good, clean rivalry between schools? Should we always use the excuse "they're only kids" to disregard childrens' actions viewed as inappropriate by others? The answers to these questions lie in the beliefs of the individual, and we may never come to an agreement.