Last Friday’s faculty vs. student basketball game ended early.

But before that, on four separate occasions the game had to be paused, not because of a timeout in the game but because of activities in the stands.

An argument started between two people. An argument led to yelling. Yelling led to hitting. The police had to get involved and from there things just got worse.
But of course our student body’s
natural reaction was to stand up, cheer it on and then post videos on Twitter and Snapchat.

People need to think about how our school is represented. Social media posts of utter chaos paint McKinney High as a UFC fight ring, not a place where people learn. Not a place where cliques are irrelevant. Not a place where kids can be in a play or build an airplane or make a TV show or get a cosmetology license. Our school has more than 140 years of history, one of the greatest lip dubs ever produced, we started the football season 3-0 and for the first time in years the Lions are looking forward to a win against Boyd on Nov. 4.

We have so much good going for us, why would we choose to ruin it? Spreading videos of fights and encouraging that behavior by cheering it on isn’t helping us. Watching peers hurt each other isn’t entertainment. It’s like watching a reality TV show and for the most part, people don’t even know who’s fighting.

But the fights weren’t the only problem at the basketball game. Mr. Arbabi was greeted with “boos” when he stepped on the court. He hasn’t done anything to deserve that. The greatness of our school doesn’t rise or fall by our principal. We dictate what our school is and chanting, “We want Butler,” just makes us look ignorant. He left us. Move on.

Let’s focus on the things we can control. Like who we are and who we want to be. Next time you see a fight in the hall instead of whipping out your phone to record it, how about extending a hand to make sure everyone is OK.

This week is homecoming week. While the powderpuff game, spirit days and pep rally make us feel good about who we are as McKinney Lions, let’s also remember that feeling during the not-so-great times when people make bad decisions and hurt their fellow students. Don’t let one bad day define us.