Besieged students team up in school's defense

Pride swells ranks at Lincoln-Sudbury game

Lincoln-Sudbury High School students and their parents line up to watch their football team play Hingham last night. (Lisa Poole for the Boston Globe)

SUDBURY - There was plenty of rowdiness in the stands at the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School football game last night, especially in the student section, but it was for far different reasons this week.

The students banged on 5-gallon drums and clanged pots and pans together. They cheered with the cheerleaders and cheered with their parents. They even cheered - perhaps the loudest - when principal John Ritchie appeared in the stands.

They were out to prove, with their parents shivering over their hot chocolate and the television cameras rolling, that they are not bad kids.

"I think it's ridiculous that because some people got suspended that everyone automatically assumes our entire class drinks and smokes and that's absolutely preposterous," said Jay Sia, 17, a senior who had his chest painted with the Sudbury "S" as he banged on a snare drum. "L-S is one of the most amazing places I've been to in my entire life."

Things were not so upbeat after the previous Friday's game, when at least one student was hospitalized with alcohol poisoning, four were cited by police, and seven were suspended after widespread student drinking at the school's home opener.

The incidents led to school officials requiring all students to be accompanied by a parent or other "responsible adult" in order to be admitted to last night's game. A school dance was also canceled as punishment.

This is not the first time Lincoln-Sudbury students have gotten into trouble for drinking. Even the L-S parents gossiped throughout the week about the nickname "Drunken-Drugbury" from rival schools.

"It's unfair," Sia said when asked about the nickname.

Jane Siegel, 17, a senior, added, "I think it's ridiculous. It's completely unnecessary that our school has that reputation, and every kid that goes here feels like that when they talk to other kids who think that about us."

Instead of boycotting the game, protesting, or trying to fight the system, the students, and particularly the senior class, took their licks and decided to use the increased media attention to their advantage. They sent Facebook and text messages to each other all week, reminding classmates and friends to attend the game, show school spirit, and be upbeat.

"It's going to be a great night," said Jason Shuman, 17, a senior who arrived with his father, Stephen. "We're here with our families, to spend some quality time with them. And it's going to be a lot of fun."

Stephen Shuman was there as the required chaperone, along with his third-grader daughter Jenna.

"It's a good chance to spend some time with our family. It's too bad it had to be this way," Stephen Shuman said.

"No one's really mad about [the policy]," said Rebekah Glickman-Simon, a senior. "Everyone's actually come together with amazing L-S pride and spirit."

Lincoln-Sudbury is no stranger to the news media.

In January of 2007 a student was stabbed to death. Amid the tragedy was a storm of local and national media attention on the school, which serves two of the state's most affluent communities.

"The really unfortunate thing is that I think there's just as much coverage about something so small and insignificant like teenage drinking as there was about losing one of our classmates," Glickman-Simon said. "And these news stations aren't just reporting what happened, they are criticizing our school and our administration when L-S is the most amazing school I've ever heard of and nothing they do can change that."

So the students set out last night to prove themselves, as hundreds of them jammed the stands in the chilly weather.

"We also want to prove it to the school that our class should not be remembered for an incident like that [last week], and our year shouldn't start off on a bad note, either," Siegel said as she cheered on the home team Warriors. "I think it was a really good reaction from the students."

The student response has caught the ears of administrators.

"I think it's terrific," Ritchie said. "A lot of students toward the end of the week were calling and texting each other and saying, 'Go to the game!' "

Ritchie believes the student response is a matter of school pride. "The kids are sick of having their school on the news and people judging them," he said.

Inside the high school last night, during the football game, French- and German-language students were conducting dress rehearsal for a multicultural performance tonight featuring the German pop group Die Prinzen.

One of the teachers in charge of the performance saw the media attention on the football game and shook her head.

"They always cover the bad things. They should look and see these other things that we do," said language teacher Michele Lepietre.

The chaperone policy was enacted for this week only. Ritchie said it was put in place to get the community's attention and "stop and take a look at things and figure out how to move ahead."

For the game, though, police deployed their usual detail of four officers.

"If the media could take one thing away from tonight, it should be that L-S is the most unique place in the world, and no school can even come close to us," said Sia.

The final score: Lincoln-Sudbury 20, Hingham 3. The Warriors won, and in the eyes of the administration, parents, and students, so did Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School.

John Guilfoil can be reached at jguilfoil@globe.com.