A New Jersey high school has canceled the crowning of a homecoming king and queen after school administrators discovered a scheme by some students to elect an "unlikely couple" and mock them in front of the entire school.
The superintendent at Rumson-Fair Haven High School in Rumson, NJ called off the coronation after finding out that a handful of students wanted to rig the election to embarrass unpopular classmates at the homecoming game on Friday night. Kind of like Carrie, minus the pig's blood.
Students still had a homecoming football game and subsequent dance, just without the king and queen.
"It's disappointing that they would be mean-spirited to other students," parent Jennifer Sullivan told ABC New York.
But students told ABC that they had never witnessed any bullying at the school and that it was unfair the entire student body was being punished for the actions of a few. "I think overall at this school no one is that bullied and everyone is nice to each other," student Tayte Irvine said.
As someone who was a teen just three years ago, I can assure you: teens are bad. They are generally impulsive and not great at telling right from wrong. And they're mean! It's not entirely their fault, though—adolescence is a critical time for the development of empathy skills. Most scientists agree that the rational part of the human brain stops developing around the age of 25, meaning even the biggest bully won't be a Bad Teen forever. There's still hope for you yet, youth of Rumson-Fair Haven High.
