A few bad apples spoiled the homecoming dance

We’ve all heard the old saying, kids will be kids, but what happened last Friday night at the California City homecoming dance goes beyond simple teenage folly.

A fight at the end of the dance led to a lockdown while officials investigated a report of a gun seen in the parking lot of the school gym.

Luckily, the gun turned out to be a realistic-looking toy. While that turned out to be the good news of the night, the fight had a different outcome. Some students involved in the melee were injured and their parents had to be contacted.

School administrators aren’t entirely sure who was involved in the incident, but they are continuing to investigate it and will no doubt figure out what happened.

Behavior amongst these teens appears to be a major issue. It’s something that Mojave Unified School District Superintendent Katherine Aguirre acknowledged in a message posted to the District’s website and social media on Saturday. “Even with an appropriate number of adults and the authorities on campus, some students chose to end the event in a very disturbing way,” she said in the statement. “We will have to evaluate if and when we are able to hold future events.”

The fact that Aguirre is going to have to evaluate whether future events will be held is unfortunate. As the other saying goes, a one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. But in this case, it was a few bad apples.

Because of the actions of a few wayward peers, the student body at California city High School might not be able to enjoy events in the future.

Perhaps a better alternative to punishing the entire student body is to figure out who was involved in the fight and who brought the fake gun on campus and see to it that they are not allowed to attend anymore school functions while they are students there. It doesn’t matter whether they are freshmen or seniors — they should be banned from all future events. If they cannot act appropriately, they shouldn’t be allowed to attend.

By the time a teen is in high school, they should have a good grasp on the concepts of right and wrong. They should also be aware that their actions have consequences.