After putting the breaks on all senior activities because of a meal-time melee, West Springfield High School decided to allow the prom to go on this year - with a catch.
"The incident on Thursday is not representative of our school," administrators said in a statement.
But the kids are not off the hook yet, for a lunchroom food fight that school officials said created a situation of "chaos and anxiety." Some students will have to do community service, including those who were in the food fight, who witnessed the food fight, and who left their class to go watch the food fight. A community service day will be held on June 4th at the high school, or students can volunteer at a food kitchen. Students will also have to bring in cans of food for the food bank. After these community service requirements are met, the kids will be allowed to go to the prom and join the other senior activities.
In a letter, West Springfield High School officials underlined the severity of the food-throwing incident. According to the letter, the lunch room was "raining food," which included raw eggs that students had brought from home.
That echoes what one student told NBC4's Derrick Ward last week. "I saw a taco, an apple, yogurt, just a bunch of stuff flying through the air," Aaron Self said.
The school said that the food throwing set off a "mass exodus" of hundreds of students from the lunch room, with many kids slipping and falling on food-strewn floors. Special needs students sitting in the middle of the cafeteria were traumatized, the school said.
Officials said that amid this chaos, a student in another section of the school pulled a fire alarm, adding to the anarchy.
Although many students will be offered the good behavior deal, the school said that no matter what, a few kids will still be barred from the prom or other senior activities. "Some individual students depending on their role, can and will be held out of some of these activities as a consequence," officials wrote.
The school hopes that the community service projects will teach the kids the proper use for food.
