On Wednesday, December 5th, the AHS hockey team participated in its first official home game of the season; during the match, AHS students were flooding with energy as they typically are during sporting events. Toward the end of the second period, however, many of them were asked to leave by AHS Administrators. A lot of confusion and conflict arose from the situation, and many students made the argument that they were not on campus, so they could not be punished as if they were.

Nick Mitchell, a junior student at AHS, was one of several students asked to leave that night. Mitchell has been a strong supporter of AHS Athletics since middle school and has never failed to live up to his label.

“I personally do not agree with the way that the AHS sporting events are supervised off campus. I think that the hockey rink should be a place where students can release stress, and feel like they are not being governed by adults,” Mitchell said. “If this continues, the sports teams at AHS are going to lose fans, and simultaneously lose motivation as well.”

Nick Mitchell seems to be speaking for a large group of students as many of them share the same opinion upon the issue.

Technically speaking, if a sports team is representing their high school, then the school has the right to supervise the game as they would supervise students at the school. With that being said, it is unnecessary for a school to punish their students, and it also puts the weight of the decision upon the administrators.

If the administrators of AHS want respect from their students, they should realize the amounts of stress that they are already placing upon their students every day. If they were able to recognize the stress levels of their students, they would most likely allow their students to govern themselves at their school’s sporting events off campus, and represent their teams in the way that they would like to.

“I love to watch all of my friends play the sports that make them happy, but the restrictions that the administrators are placing on the fans and the players are slowly diminishing my love for representing my school in the way that I want to,” Mitchell finally quotes.