A handful of students from Shenendehowa and Saratoga Springs schools were suspended and others disciplined this week after comments made on Twitter escalated into hooligan-like behavior at a high school hockey game.
Students from the rival schools clashed toward the end of a heated Section II championship game last Thursday at Union College. Verbal taunting and the exchange of derogatory electronic messages led a few fans to throw bottles at crowds of opposing fans, according to the districts. At least one Saratoga Springs student targeted Bailey Wind in Tweets from a cell phone while she watched the game with Shenendehowa fans, according to Michael Piccirillo, superintendent of Saratoga Springs schools. Wind is a Shaker High School student who was seriously injured and lost her boyfriend in a crash on the Northway on Dec. 1.
One Saratoga Springs high school student was suspended for tossing a bottle at Shenendehowa students, and two others were barred from after-school and extracurricular events for making inappropriate comments at the game and on social media, Piccirillo said.
“We want our kids to support their peers, but we want them to do it appropriately,” Piccirillo said.
As a result of its investigation into the matter, Shenendehowa school officials suspended “a couple of students” involved in the incident for breaking the district’s code of conduct, a district spokeswoman said Wednesday.
“Spectators from Shen initiated the throwing of objects by tossing two bottles at the Saratoga fans,” the spokeswoman wrote on the district’s website.
“What happened at the game is inexcusable on both sides,” the statement says.