H
ays CISD Superintendent Mike McKie announced at last week’s school board meeting that the students of Hays High will be voting on what fight song will be used at the school.
Many people commenting at that meeting were hoping that the song “Dixie” would be one of the options students could choose from.
In the meantime, the Hays Rebel fight song will be to the tune of “On Wisconsin,” which is used by schools around the country.
So, students will get to vote.
But is that really good?
Students don’t have a sense of history, nor have they been out in the world. Some students have begun to mature a bit, and their parents might talk with them about bigger pictures.
But, let’s face it, teenagers’ brains are not fully developed. No offense, but that is just science.
Students will just want a familiar fight song; they are all “in the moment” and likely won’t even know what options are out there.
It was disingenuous of the school administration to make the song change and then dump the final decision on students.
Many parents of high school students have commented that this is not fair to their children; they don’t want their kids to be bullied one way or the other.
And bullying will probably happen – to a degree.
When an alumnus spoke at the last school board meeting, a young man who had graduated this spring, the comments and ‘harruffs’ from the audience members was disgusting. This young man sat quietly while all the others made comments. But, because the other people in the audience didn’t agree with him – he spoke out against having Dixie as the fight song – they started making loud comments while he gave his remarks to the school board.
This young man was able to finish his comments and left with his dad.
This young man had graduated, but probably felt a bit intimidated.
And now, we’re going to give this kind of decision-making power to 14-year-olds and 16-year-olds? How will they be able to stand up against older residents? Will they have the tenacity to stick to their way of thinking?
The school board should have either left the decision in place, or made the decision themselves.
Instead, the students of Hays High School will be making decisions that are probably beyond their capabilities and worldliness.
That’s too bad. Because the results of this decision – whichever way it goes – will stick around for a long time.