Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Saratoga High School students stage a walkout to protest a decision preventing 10 students from attending graduation ceremonies.

Streakers caught with pants on

Principal bars students from graduation ceremony

By Torre Peña

In what students called a prank, 30 Saratoga High School seniors streaked through campus last week. Administrators weren't laughing.

And they haven't flinched since barring 10 of the streakers from graduation ceremonies in June.

"I ran through the school in a bathing suit, and now I can't go through graduation," senior Jason Cooper said. "There wasn't anything obscene, and nobody got hurt."

Wearing shorts and adorned in black body paint resembling war paint, Cooper gathered with fellow streakers at a student's house near campus on April 21. The streakers, most in underwear or shorts, then stormed the quad, where other students were eating lunch. Cheered on by classmates, the streakers circled back and made a second run through campus. After the encore, they headed to the parking lot, where a group of drivers had cars waiting to whisk them away. There were no indications that any of the streakers were under the influence of alcohol.

"It was like a mock streak," Cooper said.

Students said no one was completely nude. Principal Kevin Skelly, who made the decision to bar students from graduation ceremonies, pointed out that some of the girls in the group were topless. "It puts a damper on a wonderful class," he said.

Skelly's tough stance on streaking is the result of a 1995 incident in which a group of rowdy, naked seniors ran through campus while enduring a hail of eggs thrown by onlookers. The inebriated students weren't quite satisfied with their effort, so they drove to Redwood Middle School and continued their streak. No one who participated in that year's streak was disciplined.

Redwood demanded an apology, and the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union District Board of Trustees responded. The principals were then told to put a stop to streaking, which has become a senior class tradition. At graduation 20 years ago, some juniors streaked through the ceremony without a stitch of clothing on.

"The board said, 'Put an end to this thing, Skelly,' " Skelly explained.

Board president Ron Adolphson said the board was responsible for the crackdown on streaking.

"The punishment was designed to stop the 1995 incident from ever happening again," Adolphson said. "The problem back then was that the kids overdid it."

However, he admits that this year's prank is tame in comparison to 1995. "In 1997, it doesn't even compare. I'll be the first to admit that," he said.

Last year written notices were issued to students explaining that streakers would be unable to attend graduation. This year, however, students said there was no such written policy and were shocked to learn they could not attend graduation. Skelly said the kids knew what they were getting themselves into.

"I knew we would get in trouble, but I didn't think it would be that bad," said a streaking student who asked to remain anonymous. She said that during class, she was called into the principal's office alone and questioned by Skelly and Vice Principal Jerry McCloskey. When she admitted to streaking, she was told she couldn't attend graduation.

She said other suspected streakers were pulled from class and had similar experiences. She added that the punishment is unfair because it also affects her family members, who were looking forward to attending her graduation.

Angry with the school's inflexible administration, students began planning a protest. They targeted the morning of April 25 as the time they would stage a walkout during class. Despite earlier threats of suspension from McCloskey echoing over the intercom, about 30 students gathered in the quad around a hastily made sign with "walk out" scrawled across it.

Students plan to take their case to the board at its next meeting on May 6. However, Adolphson said he stands behind Skelly's decision.

"The penalty was probably more than necessary," Adolphson said. "But everyone knew the penalty."

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