Incident leads to rescheduling HHS homecoming

Hedley High School’s homecoming activities for Sept. 20 have been rescheduled following an incident at the school on Sept. 19.

Superintendent Garrett Bains says a joke taken too far led to the decision to cancel even though the administration and law enforcement determined there was no threat to the school or its students.

“It was a bad topic for comedy,” Bains said. “It would be like yelling ‘bomb’ in an airport. You just can’t do that, and we decided to take a tough stance.”

Bains said the school consulted with the Donley County Sheriff’s Office which agreed there was no threat to the school. The superintendent said the administration’s policy is that disciplinary action means a kid cannot participate in an athletic event that week, which can have a big impact when a school only has eight football players.

“If you take out two or three, then you don’t have a team,” Bains said. “If you have two or three that can’t play, you have to cancel.”

Bains said it’s important for kids to learn when a joke isn’t funny anymore.

“These are good kids, and it’s part of growing up,” he said. “It was a bad decision by a couple of young men. It looks terrible. It looks much worse than it really is.”

Bains said all homecoming activities have been moved to Sept. 27. He also said there has been a mixed reaction from parents but he thinks most parents support the school’s decision.