To the student body:

This is a message for the all of you. My name is Richard Griffin, and if you don’t know me, I’m an assistant principal here. I want you to know that I have been a middle school and high school administrator for 34 years, 21 of those here at WS, and for the first time in my career, I do not have words to describe how I felt after the food fight in our cafeteria.

But I do know that I have NEVER been more disappointed in a group of students than I was last week during C lunch in the cafeteria, and I have NEVER witnessed such blatant disrespect on the part of so many students.

The adults in this building, every single one of them, are here to provide you with the best possible education as a foundation for your successful future. We have provided you with instruction in more subjects than you’ll find in most schools across the nation; we have given you field trip opportunities, we have coached your extra-curriculars, we have extended deadlines and seniors, for you especially, we have gone above and beyond for so many of you just to make sure that you graduate and that your senior year is positive.

You recently chose to thank us by completely destroying our school cafeteria—both those of you who threw food and those of you who stood by and watched it happen. Many of you came inside just to watch—and to you too, I say, “Shame on you.” You are just as guilty. You did this in the presence of administrators, counselors, teachers, security personnel and even Officer Plazio—the disrespect was blatant and colossal.

There is nothing funny about the mess you created in our cafeteria, a mess most of you never had to clean up. There is nothing funny about the extra work you caused and the disrespect you exhibited toward our custodial and cafeteria staffs. There is nothing funny about 600 students running from the cafeteria, tripping over chairs and falling from spills. There is nothing funny at all about an unsafe environment ever.

To those of you who still think this is funny, maybe you were too busy throwing food or dodging security to witness the response of our distraught special needs students, so I want you to picture one of these students: a young lady who thrives on routine and predictability.  She was literally sobbing, terrified at the commotion of flying food, students  running everywhere, chairs flipping over and the fire alarm blaring, so upset that she could not walk out of the cafeteria on her own. I want you to stand in front of her mother and father and explain what was funny about her reaction to the chaos.

Later, on this same day, I attended a school board meeting and after the meeting I decided to stop by the school specifically to go in the cafeteria.  Nine custodians were working in the cafeteria at 8:20 p.m., cleaning and disinfecting all tables and chairs, stripping and waxing the floor, cleaning the ceiling.  Whether you were involved or not, take the time to thank a custodian for your clean seat in the cafeteria today.

To those of you who engaged in OR sat back and watched this food fight take place, I want to say I’m disappointed, upset, and more importantly, I’m hurt. And to those of you who were not involved at all, I feel badly that the actions of the few have tainted our respect and faith in all of you. That’s not fair, so I would ask all of you to think twice about the consequences of your actions.

It is my hope that this is the one and only time in my career that I will ever have to witness such an event, but feel such a pervasive sense of disappointment. I have been proud of this school and its students, faculty, staff and parents for 21 years and I want to continue to be proud of the excellence that I have seen and felt about WS. Let it be known that ALL students were not involved in this incident, but we ALL were affected in one way or the other.

Richard Griffin

12^th-Grade Administrator