Junior Olympics Cancelled at SHS

Junior Olympics has been a tradition in Scarsdale High School since the 1980s.  It is meant to be a friendly, competitive event for juniors towards the end of the school year in which they have fun and celebrate the end of the academic year and the approach of summer. There are games such as kick ball, tug-of-war, trivia, an obstacle course race, and a pie-eating contest.  Juniors team up with their Scarsdale elementary schools and dress up in the elementary school colors for the event, evoking nostalgia and renewing old friendships in the much-anticipated event each year.  However, on May 3, Scarsdale High School Principal John Klemme canceled the event for the juniors, the Class of 2011, following an unruly human gridlock in the hallways that took place on April 28.

Over the past few years, Klemme came to reevaluate Junior Olympics due to dangerous and illegal behavior students displayed the night before the event, including speeding, vandalizing and drinking. After the SHS newspaper Maroon published an editorial in the fall regarding the possible cancellation of Junior Olympics, the junior class advisors and the junior class government officers met with Klemme to be sure their grade could continue the tradition. Klemme did not cancel the event earlier this year, hoping to give the junior class a chance to prove they were more responsible than previous classes. The administration apparently warned the junior class government that a misbehavior, such as participating in a dangerous gridlock, would lead to the cancellation of Junior Olympics, but the message was not passed along to the rest of the class.

On the first day of finals for seniors, during which juniors sense their newfound seniority, approximately 50 juniors gathered for a gridlock, although the administration says around 70 students were present. Juniors chanted obscenities and hoisted students into the air. Moreoever, a few members of the junior class government were present at the gridlock. This rowdy gridlock convinced Klemme that the junior class was not responsible enough to have Junior Olympics.

Many juniors were enraged that Junior Olympics was cancelled and argued that the cancellation, based on the actions of just a fraction of the class, was unjust. Students tried to organize protests and even created a Facebook group to rally against the cancellation of the event. The juniors who controlled the Facebook group deleted it after one night, though, because they thought discussions in the group were getting out of hand; for example, juniors compared the cancellation to violations of the Constitution and proposed protests inspired by the Civil Rights Movement.

Klemme has received mixed responses from parents, but the faculty seems to fully support the decision to cancel Junior Olympics.

The existence of Junior Olympics will remain conditional for future classes. By cancelling the event for this year's junior class, the administration proved they will not let the misconduct of students go unpunished. Klemme hopes future classes will "police" themselves.