the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood High School was again not portrayed in the best light in the stands or parking lot during the lacrosse tournament. Principal Tom Gorman sent out and email condemning poor behavior and littering.
“Unfortunately, despite previous warnings and pleas for assistance in my November 30 and December 11 letters regarding the conduct of our fans at the MetLife Stadium football championship game, Ridgewood High School was again not portrayed in the best light in the stands or parking lot during the lacrosse tournament. Administrators from Mahwah High School have notified us that the parking lot parent tailgate in the Ridgewood section was left in a very poor state with trash and alcohol bottles strewn about. In addition, we had one Ridgewood adult fan verbally accost the referees after the game, which required police intervention.”
Several Ridgewood parents have now come out and vigorously denied the allegations made by Principal Tom Gorman. Parents claim the messes were not Ridgewood messes and that RHS parents and students cleaned up .
This is not the first time these type of allegations were made at a Ridgewood Sports group. In December
Principal Tom Gorman , sent out and email saying , “Unfortunately, despite previous warnings and pleas for assistance, Ridgewood High School was not portrayed in the best light in the stands or in the parking lot. Administrators and faculty members spent much of the game dealing with students that were under the influence and/or involved in disruptive behavior. In addition, the parking lot in the Ridgewood section was left in a very poor state with trash and broken bottles” https://theridgewoodblog.net/ridgewood-high-school-was-not-portrayed-in-the-best-light-in-the-stands-or-in-the-parking-lot-at-metlife-stadium/
A reader at the time commented , “I watched the streaming game on MSG Barsity. The camera panned the Ridgewood crowd and one high school aged boy gave the finger to the camera – for the entire time the camera pointed into the stands. It seemed like forever.
Tailgating is something that adult and college sports fans do. How many Facebook posts of tailgates have you seen this fall? All pics of your neighbors drinking in the parking lot. This is also seen in the Facebook posts from parents traveling to college football games and partying with the kids. Did any of you stop and think how pathetic you look drinking at a frat party? And then you make things worse by posting those photos for the world to see.
So parents, the kids are just mimicking your behavior. Think about that the next time you post your party pics. Some parents think that they look cool, most just look like puffy boozers.”
While we think the truth is somewhere in between the Gorman allegations and the parents denials we do think parents ,coaches and teachers must lead by example and set high standards of behavior . A $103 million school budget would suggest those standards should be equality as high.