It was supposed to be a “senior prank.”
But it got out of hand.
On the evening of April 29th, 2015 a large number of graduating students showed up at Sequoyah High School in Madisonville, TN. According to the Huffington Post, students said sheriff’s deputies, including the school resource officer, had led them into the building and warned them not to destroy any property.
“They told us when we got in the school … ‘Don’t steal anything and don’t break anything and we’ll be good,'” Sequoyah High School senior Katelin Barnes said.
The students, senior Kody Hampton added, showed up with glitter and balloons.
“There were pretty much two waves of people who went through. The first wave, wasn’t bad, just simple pranks that did no harm,” Hampton said.
It was not till about 1:00 a.m., the students said, that additional students showed up and the harmful prank turned ugly.
According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, students urinated on walls, let chickens and crickets loose in the hallways, sprayed shaving cream and ketchup throughout the building and left a dead animal in a hallway.
Surveillance video helped identify the students present. There were more than 100, almost half the graduating class.
School administrators took immediate action.
All the students involved were banned from attending the graduation ceremony scheduled for May 15th. They were also prohibited from attending Scholarship and Awards ceremonies. Diplomas and awards could be picked up at the school office, but they were not allowed to join their fellow graduates in the public ceremonies.
In the aftermath of the vandalism and its consequences, parents of the guilty kids sought to find a way to somehow recognize their students for their good achievements over the course of their whole high school careers. They were upset with their kids, but felt that one bad decision should not define their whole school experience. One family approached my former parish – the Community Church at Tellico Village – to see if the parents could use the church’s facility for a “Graduate Recognition Ceremony.” After hearing from the family (including their student) the church’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved the parents’ request to use the building. In a letter to the congregation the Trustees wrote that they neither condoned the vandalism nor criticized the school’s discipline but believed that God’s grace was needed to redeem an otherwise disastrous circumstance.
Not everyone was happy with the Trustees’ decision, including many church members. Some felt the church was overriding the punishment handed out by the school.
I respectfully (and lovingly) disagree with those who think the church made a bad decision and was letting the kids off the hook for their bad behavior. The students were punished. The punishment was that the kids were not permitted to attend their school graduation ceremony. That’s HUGE – a tragedy not only for the kids, but for whole families who had been proudly planning to celebrate their graduates. Additional punishments are no doubt forthcoming from law enforcement for the vandalism. Both sanctions are well justified and important. There DO need to be consequences.
But…there also needs to be grace that points kids in new directions. The ceremony at the Community Church was not graduation, but a recognition of the good accomplishments of these seniors over the course of their high school years – long before the one stupid act ever happened. And it was a calling to a better, more responsible future.
We can all simply label these kids for their sin, or we can call them to to their potential. I choose to try to find redemption and hope for each and every one of these children of God.
And I am very proud of the Community Church for doing the same.
Maybe we should all re-read the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15.
Just my humble opinion.
Marty,
Thank you for your comments. We too felt that compassion was necessary in this incident.
Hope all is well with you.
Pat and Roger
I agree with almostt everything you said. Kids make stupid mistakes. They don’t adult brains. They make bad decisions. They’re often in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mistakes were made. Why are pranks condoned by the administration? Terrible idea – obviously.
Parents and family want to see their children graduate. And an alternate ceremony was probably a good thing.
I understand all of that.
However, I still feel the celebration should have been held on neutral territory. Rent a facility.
Having the celebration at our church says to the community that the school district was wrong and we condone the act.
I totally agree that we can love these students even though they did something wrong. I think we should show grace.
But, I feel we went against the authority of the district. Not a good message to send. And that is the message that was sent.
We are proud to be members of this church and believe that every one of us needs a second chance now and then. Rhonda Blevins wrote a wonderful letter expressing the need for grace. Parents were extremely grateful for a beautiful place to recognize the accomplishments of their children, while holding them responsible for bad behavior.
Anyone interested in reading the letter Marian references can view it here.
Marty,
Good article. I too support the church’s decision. Thanks for sharing the conundrum.
Bill
Yes, I’ve heard some interesting opinions from members. I didn’t know what it was all about at first, but I supporteded the decision because it was made by the Trustees/Council. As I told the first person who was “outraged” by it that , just like with the Search Committee, I trusted that the Trustees/Council make appropriate decisions on these kinds of things and I’m not going to second-guess them.
After I learned more about the situation, I’m sure it was a challenging decision and am confident that the decision was made in a very prayerful way.
I reminded some people that many of us did stupid things as teenagers and that those things were often an example of how easy it is to get caught up in a group/mob mentality. That was probably a “lesson learned” by some of the teens who would never have done something like this on their own.
I’m sure that their parents, law enforcement, and the school will deal with the “consequences” part of their actions. It is appropriate for our church to be part of the “grace and redemption” part.
Jesus teaches us that we should do the right thing, even if the right thing goes against popular belief. We shouldn’t care what others think of us as long as we are doing what is right. In this case I think the Community Church at Tellico Village made the right decision, even though it wasn’t the most popular one. Well done!
After much prayer, I hope we’ll all ask ourselves a question “if the same vandalism was done to The Community Church, how would we respond?” Is Grace important – absolutely and I did reread the scripture verse Marty referred to – a sad time for all involved. I just heard that several of the students were saying to the non-offenders that their “graduation” was in a beautiful place –
What have we taught them? I write this not to argue with anyone but to ask us all to really “think” because no doubt a “like situation” will face us again.
Thanks MRTY I AM ALSO APPRECIATIVE OF OUR CHURCH DECISION TO WELCOME THE KIDS SOME OF WHOM WHO DID A V ERY STUPID THING. I ALSO APPRECIATE VERY MUCH THE LEADERSHIP[ OF OUR TRUSTEES AND OF REV. DR. RHONDA BLEVINS IN THAT DECISION.