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Homecoming is about school pride, football games, dressing up, floats … and paint-balls, vandalism, and slashed tires. At least that is what happened during Homecoming at FHS the past week, resulting in the cancellation of the parade and putting Homecoming on probation next year.
Oct. 1, the night before the homecoming parade, all the classes got together to work on their floats. The evening has traditionally been a time of class rivalry.
“Class rivalry happens every year because we have no other competing high schools in town,” said student body president Ben Smith. “We basically have to go up against other classes.”
The juniors were at NUPAC decorating their float when a group of seniors arrived with paint-ball guns and eggs and attempted to steal the FHS lance that was on the junior float.
“They (juniors) told us they were building their float at NUPAC and the gates were open,” said senior Dylan McFarland. “They basically said ‘come and get us.’ ”
During the paint-ball war, a second group of seniors arrived to join in the fray. They opened up the garage door and began to shoot at the people inside.
“We were ready for the first group,” said junior Ryan Lynch. “We had about five paint-ball guns because we heard they were coming. The second group was a total surprise.”
Four seniors also went to Hines Auto Body, where the sophomores were building their float. Sophomore Nate Grubb was standing guard outside the warehouse when the seniors arrived.
“They paint-balled my truck,” said Grubb. “They shot at me (and) I shot back. I realized I was gonna get my butt whupped. They wanted in the warehouse.”
Once the seniors captured Grubb they forced him to drive them around.
“We got in the truck, drove to the senior’s house, and I dropped one off at Rosauer’s. I took the rest of them to the high school,” said Grubb.
The seniors, expecting some retribution from the juniors, moved all of their decorations inside the warehouse at Crescent Electric, leaving only the flatbed trailer outside. The next morning senior Stacie Phillips arrived to check on the float and found the flatbed spray painted and one of the tires slashed. The large door to the warehouse was bent as well.
“We didn’t think they could do too much to a flatbed truck,” said senior David Beekman. “We didn’t think they would disable it.”
The next day members of student council met in a closed door meeting to decide what to do about the previous night’s activities. The council issued a statement to the student body saying the parade was canceled and any inappropriate behavior would result in cancellation of the dance. The council organized a clean up crew that went to the businesses and cleaned up the mess from the night before.
“I was impressed by how students took responsibility for their actions,” said Jim Lynch, owner of NUPAC. “They came to my facility, looked me in the eye, and apologized.”
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