Shawano Community High School’s homecoming didn’t come with reports of students causing problems in the city and surrounding towns.
Neighboring Bonduel didn’t fare as well, however, as their own homecoming is slated to take place this week.
Bonduel School District Superintendent Joe Dawidziak posted on Facebook that his schools were vandalized. Toilet paper was the visual evidence of this, he wrote, but there were also cheese slices placed on classroom windows, cameras, doors and vehicles.
A portable restroom was overturned, according to Dawidziak, and picnic tables and benches were overturned. Other benches were moved onto the football field, garbage cans were emptied, a stop sign was removed and large rocks were placed in driveways.
Dawidziak wrote that the vandalism took a lot of time to fix so the schools could get back to a sense of normalcy, and he vowed to address the incidents with “any necessary consequences through the proper channels.” However, he prefaced his vow by noting that Bonduel students are not to blame for the vandalism, and that their response to it has shown “tremendous character, maturity, and class.”
“We have spoken with our student body, and our message has been simple: continue to be the better example,” Dawidziak wrote. “There is no value in lowering ourselves to the level of behavior we experienced. Retaliation would serve no purpose and would reflect the very conduct we expect our students to rise above.”
Shawano School Board member Bobbi Lemerond praised Dawidziak’s statement in a post to the Shawano Let’s Talk About It page and indicated that the perpetrators could be from the Shawano School District.
“I hope more is done on our end and that the identified students are held accountable,” Lemerond wrote. “This should not happen and is a disgrace to the ‘Hawk Way’! MAKE BETTER CHOICES!”
Dawidziak finished his post on Facebook by urging Bonduel to take the high road as it went on with homecoming and not dwell on the offenses committed against them.
“Let’s show everyone what makes our school community special by celebrating with pride, leading with character, and remembering that true school spirit is measured by how we carry ourselves, especially when others choose a different path,” Dawidziak wrote.
