Senior Patrick Farves incites outcry from Central community
- cysdsites
- Apr 21, 2014
- 2 min read
Central York High School senior Patrick Farves sparked a social media frenzy last Thursday, April 17 when he asked Miss America to prom after being told by school administrators not to, and was given three days of in-school-suspension for his actions. A large portion of the social media outcry has come from parents of Central students and alumni raising concerns on why this incident was handled in a much swifter fashion compared to how the school has dealt with situations pertaining to school bullying and drug use, as well as what kind of message this sends to the students of Central.
Much of the outcry came from the comments on a post on the Central York School District Facebook page containing the school’s official statement on the subject. Central resident Chuck Bavis said, “I’m a little concerned how [the] administration can react so quickly to discipline things such as this but allow physical assault and bullying go unpunished. 2 years ago my daughter was being bullied and it was seen on camera yet administration let the school year end without resolution. Sad.”
Another Central resident, Greg Myers, spoke of the message Central is sending to its students, saying, “While yes, rules are rules, and [are] to be followed, what the district did was squash this child/ students courage and passion. No one EVER got anything without taking risks.”
Central alumnus Adam Darr added to this sentiment saying: “Things like this make students afraid to speak their mind in front of anyone with some semblance of authority… [I]n the end it’s really just the question of whether the school district wants to foster a group of students who speak their minds and find novel solutions to problems or assert their own power to actively suppress anything of the sort.” This concern was further perpetuated in the student body as students who attempted to watch the Today Show on their website in school on April Monday 21, the same day Farves appeared for an interview regarding the situation, found the website blocked. However the website has always been blocked to school students for falling under the tag of “entertainment.”
As the Today Show aired today, more comments spurred on the Facebook page again—this time supporting the school. 2001 Central grad Matthew Dumanski commented, “… I am in agreement with the school now. He stood up in the auditorium, interrupted the ‘show.’ When I was at CYHS, if I would have interrupted a show at the auditorium, after they said not to; I would have rightfully gotten in trouble. He even said he didn’t care and knew he was going to get into trouble.”
Another comment from Jamie Hayes Folkenroth said, “What I took from what this kid had to say and his demeanor on the Today show was this was meant to be another one of his pranks with his friends.” Miss America Nina Davuluri has since made a statement on the subject saying that she contacted CYHS asking them to reconsider the punishment the administration has given to Farves, furthering members of the Central community to questions the severity of the punishment and the intent behind Farves’ actions. Central has yet to respond to these concerns raised by the Central community as of the publication of this article.