By now, many of you have heard the rumors regarding concerns over the behavior of some students at the Homecoming dance. The main concern that we, the Alpena High School Administration and staff, have over these behaviors is how these actions represents our school and our community. As a school, it our responsibility to keep students safe and create a culture that emphasizes appropriate behaviors while in our building or attending district sponsored events. The main purpose of this letter is to engage in conversations with you, our students, about how to be respectful of each other while in school or at school functions.
The biggest issue observed at Homecoming was students coming up behind other students to “grind” on them in a highly sexualized manner. In our discussions with students, we discovered that some of the incidents occurred between a male and female student in which consent was neither asked for nor granted. These behaviors are not acceptable at Alpena High School, and they do not represent what Alpena High School stands for, or what we want our culture to be. Moving forward, students who continue to behave in this manner will be asked to leave the event and may be subject to further disciplinary action.
We want all of our students to feel safe and included by providing a place where they hang out and be in a supervised environment. While in our building, we expect our students to demonstrate positive behaviors and refrain from excessive displays of affection, crude language, and other inappropriate behavior. We want Alpena High School to be a place where staff and students feel empowered to do their personal best, inspire the best in others, and contribute to the success of the entire building including classroom and hallway behaviors, sportsmanship on the athletic field, and appropriate behavior at all school functions. I want to personally invite all AHS students to attend our Sadie Hawkins Dance on December 1 and demonstrate the type of behaviors that reflect our school in a positive light.
Together, we can make our school the very best it can be for ALL students. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Thomas Berriman
Principal
Alpena High School