Every year you hear about high school seniors doing something silly—bringing chickens to school, for instance—and being banned from prom or graduation for it. But getting banned for having a water balloon fight outside of school property still seems pretty severe!
But that is exactly what has happened to a group of East Rockaway High School kids this year who were involved in a water fight that caught two school administrators, a crossing guard and countless "defenseless" students in its crossfire.
The school isn't talking, but East Rockaway Superintendent Roseanne Melucci put out a statement to Newsday [reg. req'd] saying "The actions of these students created a disorderly and unsafe situation by obstructing vehicular and pedestrian traffic, and by engaging in a willful disruption of the normal operation of the school community." Further, Melucci says that students and parents were warned this might happen if they engaged in "disruptive acts."
But even though reportedly nearly 50 students were involved in the annual water fight, not all of the students were punished. And not all of the 20 who have been banned from graduation were even involved, they say. “I didn’t even throw a water balloon and I’m being penalized,” Mike Castellano told CBS.
Many students also claim that the fateful water balloons that hit the administrators wasn't even thrown by a student at the school.
Understandably, parents are pissed. "We've always held our son accountable for his actions," Jack Gallegro said of his son Anthony. "If he did something wrong, we always stood behind the school 110 percent. With this one, I'm sure he did nothing wrong. The same way I hold my son accountable, these school officials need to be held accountable, too."
