On Thursday, September 26, after another victorious win for the Longhorns football team against the Foster Falcons, a group of George Ranch students headed to the local Whataburger to celebrate. The excitement over the game quickly went out of a control and the inappropriate behavior resulted in the premature closing of Whataburger that night.

“While some poor decisions were made, the George Ranch student body is a group based on integrity and community respect. With this in mind, we must live up to this standard and extend our apologies,” executive NHS President, Sarah May said.

An Ethics Council Meeting was held the next Wednesday, October 2, to address a plan to make it up to Whataburger.  The library filled up with a sea of students from all ends of the school ready to come together to help George Ranch.

For principal Leslie Haack, the intention of the meeting was to turn the entire situation around and show the community what great kids George Ranch has.

Focusing on ways to reimburse Whataburger for the revenue lost by the early closing, reinstate a positive reputation, and prevent future altercations, a motley group of GRHS students (two representatives from each extracurricular) and a crowd of department chair members were  guided by the NHS Officer Board in brainstorming ideas.

Bright minded students eager to present their ideas, held their hands up one by one to volunteer to speak at the podium in front of their peers. Ideas about post-game tailgating and Whataburger-catering were introduced as some of many options the students had brought up. May was proud of the student input; she was thrilled with the “incredibly thoughtful suggestions” that the representatives had come up with.

“I believe now more than ever that our student body has the ability to leave a legacy in the halls of GRHS and in our community, ” May said.

The success of the Ethics Council speaks volumes for the future of George Ranch. May hopes the participants will take on values about coming together as a school to solve problems and support one another.

“I have full confidence that the character and passion of GRHS students will once again be seen and admired by the community, ” May states.”If anything, I believe we will come  back stronger than before having learned a valuable lesson.”