After witnessing the undeniably sour relationship between last year’s senior class and the administrative staff, it was assumed that this year’s graduating class would make it a point to start the year off right. The toxic temperament of a few of last year’s student section regulars and the infamous back-turning incident was just embarrassing. One would think that this year’s senior class would note the consequences of this misbehavior and act respectably.

And we have…for the most part.

Those who follow the HHS Student Section on Twitter (@HHSection) might have noticed some ugly direct messages and subtweets from the account toward Oviedo students and HHS alumni this past week, as pictured below.

This behavior is not representative of our school’s student body. Our student section is packed for almost every sporting event, and not just for football games. The majority of our students boast a healthy dose of school spirit, and we make sure our student athletes know that we support them.

With that in mind, the tweets on the student section account need to represent the entirety of the student section, not just its leaders. This editorial represents the BluePrint staff, so we discussed this piece and made sure all were in agreement. Our staff and the student section are entirely different entities, but we operate by the same principles. At least, we should.

We understand trash talking, especially to build hype for our sports teams, and @HHSection is great at this. However, personal attacks that call out someone for their gender, size or orientation do not embody the sportsmanship found in our stands on game nights.

Thankfully, the account has stayed relatively positive since that string of tweets in mid-August. Senior and student section leader Robby Boyer stated on his personal Twitter account that he is not behind the offensive tweets, and he has been a worthy leader so far. Unfortunately, many people, including student section leaders of past years, have access to the account, and it is difficult to pinpoint who is causing the trouble. Since their tweets have stayed comparatively clean since the incident began, it is our hope that these tweets were the actions of one rogue individual, that the situation has already been handled in private and that nothing more will come of it.

It is also worth noting that seniors are allowed five privilege days this year, as opposed to three last year (not counting the one that was taken away by administration). That is a lot to lose. Let’s not give administration any reason to limit this generous number, be it on social media, at games and pep rallies or in our day to day interactions with each other and campus staff. We support @HHSection and encourage people to follow them, but with the Hometown Showdown game against Oviedo coming up next week, everyone should remember not to get personal with our rivals over social media. Let’s allow our spirit and game attendance to prove why we’re the best, not cowardly attacks from behind a keyboard. Let’s be the student section our athletes, and our school’s reputation, need us to be.