Are the Roughriders getting a little too rowdy for football?
High school football games across the country bring in thousands of students to be a part of a community. This sense of community can help to support their team as a form of school spirit and strength.
Roosevelt’s own football team brings in many students, parents, and alumni to each of their games. One student stated that they are drawn to games because of the “friends that are going with me, and just kind of for the social experience of it all.”
Principal Tami Brewer attends each game to ensure safety and stability, and has noticed some worrying behavior from the football student section. “There’s a lot of good school spirit, I think students are there and should enjoy cheering for their team, and that’s great,” said Brewer. She continued, “I think I have had some safety concerns, as well as just some overall behavior issues that have come up mostly when the stadium is full.” Specifically, she worries about unsportsmanlike behavior, such as things being thrown.
Brewer specifically referred to the game on Sept. 15, 2023, when the team played Lakeside High School at Nathan Hale football field. The theme was neon, and students had brought packets of neon powder into the stands with them.
One Roosevelt student commented on the event, saying, “It was fun … but I think it just made it more chaotic as well … It was a bit of a different environment than in the past, since there was a lot more pushing, and a bit more focus on keeping yourself up, and not falling down because there were so many people in the stands. My friends and I were sandwiched between a group of people on either side who did not want the other group of people to take up that amount of space, so they just kept pushing us.”
Brewer stated, “At the game where the band was there, they had band uniforms and these are expensive to dry clean. There was a concern expressed by the band director that there was no understanding of how [throwing the neon powder] would impact people next to them [the band] … If it’s in somebody’s space, if it’s on someone’s clothes, and it ruins it. So that’s the difference [between the neon game and other games].”
Warnings to specific students have been given out, but Brewer believed that there is no need to correct students in front of massive crowds because it could escalate a situation. Preventing such behavior is difficult, but Brewer believes student leaders can make a difference, stating, “The conversation is about expecting our students to be better, expecting them to represent Roosevelt well, and think about more than themselves … In other words, setting the tone, setting expectations, having students be on board, students wanting the outcome to look how they reflect well on them as a school community. And that’s just really where the energy, I think, needs to be.”
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