Reports of boxes of candy filled with aquarium rocks, along with condoms filled with rocks, were spreading through the parade watchers and to the schools before the parade ended last Thursday. Principals, who were notified in time, had all teachers collect the candy from their students and dispose of it.
Since that time, reports of a child who had chipped a tooth on the aquarium rocks have surfaced.
During Monday night's school board meeting, school board member Ronald Birdwell asked for a full explanation of what happened on Thursday because many people had been asking him.
"There was an accident last Thursday morning that left several students injured. All of the injured students were back in school today. We have to thank the Almighty Lord that none were hurt more seriously. We were back to a normal school day today," Director of Schools Mike Prock said.
"In addition to the 15 kids that were transported from the scene, three others were brought in by their parents because I wanted to make sure every child was checked out."
"When I left the hospital at about 10 to 3 I received a phone call from Macon County Junior High School," Prock continued. "There were reports of gravel in Nerds boxes and condoms with rocks in them and bubble gum that had already been chewed and put back in the wrappers."
"On Friday morning, peer pressure led to some students starting to come forward and start naming names. About 75 kids were talked to. Eight kids are guilty of doing these things and we have two more we think are guilty. I think they need to be punished pretty severely," Prock continued.
"The parents of the kids who did this are pretty upset at the kids, too."
"There was a ring leader and his punishment is going to be worse than the others," Prock reported.
"We have the names of the people who did this," MCHS Principal Cindy Gammons reported in an interview on Monday, "and they will be severely punished."
Gammons stated that "less than 10 kids" are responsible.
"It is unfortunate that it happened and the rest of the student body felt terrible about the incident."
"The rest of the students want to let the town know that it's not all the kids who were involved in this."
"We did not want to punish 800 kids for what 10 did," she said. "We are making the punishment severe enough that no one will consider doing it again. This is some of the most severe punishment I have handed out."
"After interviewing everyone involved, I think it was not a malicious act intentionally done to hurt someone. They thought it was a prank and didn't realize how bad someone could be hurt."
"Our hope is that no one make a rash decision on the parade. We have a lot to be thankful for," Gammons concluded.
The future of the Macon County High School homecoming parade is undecided at this point.
"I've heard it from the public," Prock said during Monday night's school board meeting: "'It's tradition. You can't do a way with tradition'. "
"I'd be highly upset if my child had a tooth chipped on the rocks that were thrown. There's one out there like that."
"I think we need to talk about it before we have another homecoming parade," Prock continued.
"We could cut out their cars in it," school board member Ronald Birdwell commented.
"During the next work session we need to discuss the homecoming parade,"Prock said. "I don't think we should make any decisions until we look at it. I don't want to say we're not going to have it and then punish over 700 kids because of what 8 did, but we need to talk about it."
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