Temper rivalries with respect

The first month of the new school year has brought the usual challenges, plus a brand new one in School District 5 - rivalry.

That's because for the first time ever, there are two high schools in Kalispell, the venerable and beloved Flathead High School and the new kid on the block, Glacier High.

District administrators were aware that the change would bring challenge, of course, and to some extent they tried to emphasize common ground and minimize rivalry. But now that Glacier High School is open, nature is taking its course and separate identities are being forged, as we all knew they would.

That should not be cause for concern. Rivalry is not a dirty word. It should not carry connotations of immaturity, anger, or danger, abd should not in itself be avoided.

There are, however, different kinds of rivalries - let's call them, in particular, healthy and unhealthy rivalries, and here is where parents, teachers, administrators and students should all be on alert.

It is important to steer clear of the kinds of incidents that have been reported in letters to the Inter Lake in recent weeks. If students from Glacier attend a Flathead High School game, they should not be subject to rock-throwing or bottle-throwing. They should not even be subject to name-calling or taunting.

Needless to say, the same applies when students from Flathead attend a Glacier event.

It is inevitable that every component of life has an element of competition in it, and competition invariably results in rivalry, but let us not mistake rivalry for hooliganism.

The paramount point to remember is that we are all members of the same community in a larger sense. The Flathead Valley has a reputation for friendliness and decency, which is too precious to give up for the sake of school colors.

The key to a healthy rivalry, of course, is respect - respect for yourself and respect for others. Probably it is our students themselves who must take the lead in making sure that visitors feel welcomed, not intimidated, whether those visitors are from out of town or from across town.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's start rooting for both of our Kalispell teams, both of our schools, all of our children, and set a good example by honoring success wherever we find it, encouraging sportsmanship in all its varieties, and being a hometown that is big enough and generous enough to have two home teams.