Sports often play a big part in pumping up school spirit, but student spectators at one local high school have been barred from attending hockey games after a series of fights broke out in the stands last week.
There is a game scheduled tomorrow night in Bedford, Nova Scotia between rival hockey teams from Lockview and Charles P. Allen High Schools, but students are banned from hitting the stands.
Parents, teachers and other adults can attend, but the principals at each of the two schools decided not to open doors to students after they were caught fighting at a game on Friday.
"There were some fights in the stands last time that actually resulted in suspensions to students, and they felt that there could be some reoccurrence of issues at this game," said Halifax Regional School Board spokesman Doug Hadley.
CTV News spoke to students as they left Charles P. Allen High School at lunchtime on Thursday, and they had varying opinions about being banned from attending tomorrow night's game.
"You have to have people watching…it just makes it interesting," said one student. "If there's no students watching, there's no point."
"I don't care. It doesn't matter to me," said another.
Parent Liz Casey told CTV News she was disappointed in the decision as she would like to be able to take her son and his friend to the hockey game tomorrow.
"It's kind of disappointing," said Casey. "I think the parents enjoy going to watch the hockey games."
The principals at Charles P. Allen and Lockview High Schools say they are going to see how the game goes on Friday and then they will make some decisions about allowing students to attend future games.
They also say the last thing to want to see is a permanent ban of student attendance at hockey games.
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With files from CTV Atlantic's Ron Shaw
