By: Mason Benovy
Less than 10 minutes on the clock, and the scoreboard reads 0-0.
For the first time of the season, the Hershey High School student section, dubbed the Hershey Hierarchy has made an appearance at the girls field hockey game. However, the excitement and cheers quickly came to an end. As the clock dwindled down, HHS senior Josh Warren was asked by a Derry Township Police Department officer to leave the game. When asked why, HHS Principal Dr. Dale Reimann told Josh he was cheering too loudly, and that his cheers were bothering others.
At a meeting with Tara Dorsey, HHS Assistant Principal, the next morning, Warren was told he was suspended until the Friday of the homecoming game.
“I don’t think it was fair that you can tell someone they can’t cheer… but I also talked back and was not respectful [to her],” Warren said.
Warren was able to go to the game that night, which he was incredibly relieved about. “I just wanted to get the issues dealt with so I could go to that game,” Warren said.
Although he did not get in any trouble with the administration, HHS senior Dylan Painter also had a meeting with the administration. HHS assistant principal, Peter Ebert set up the meeting in hopes of talking about the status of the student section in a formal way.
“[The meeting] was very organized and we had a lot of good discussion on the state of the section,” Painter said.
Body painting has been a hot topic and the big question at the meeting was whether or not it would be allowed for the remainder of the season. Since 2013, students were not allowed to use any body paint at any sporting event.
After the meeting, the administration agreed that students could paint up for all regular season games. In addition, the administration agreed to not have a video camera recording the fans as in years past. In return, the principals ask that the student section refrains from throwing bottles, fighting, and chanting anything negative.
In spite of the recent meetings and agreements, according to an informal survey nearly 93% of HHS students believe the administration is too strict about how the student section shows their trojan pride.
Junior Hagan Seeley thinks the administration has a long way to go, “[The administration] don’t let their students support their school as much as we would like to.”
