The six pillars of character are alive and well in the Roanoke Valley. As evidence, consider that 30 students of Hidden Valley High School have decided to make amends for the destructive actions of three fellow students.
No court compelled them to do so; no obligation was imposed on innocent students to atone for the destructive actions of others. But students at Hidden Valley decided on a course of action that would demonstrate to those affected in New York that Roanoke County, Virginia, is the home of teens with respect for authority, solid citizens who wish to make good on a debt to the 17th Precinct of the New York City Police Department and the staff of the Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel in Manhattan.
Following an April incident where three county students — one from Hidden Valley and two who attended Cave Spring — vandalized police and motel property while in New York City on a school-sponsored trip. The three students allegedly threw cans of paint from the top of the hotel, striking police vehicles and the private cars of officers on duty that were parked across the street.
While certainly no one in New York holds the 30 teens who volunteered to make this trip personally responsible for the actions of the others, their sense of caring — for the reputation of their hometown and righting the wrong visited upon others — brings the purpose of the trip in line with the values of Valley Character.
Kudos to those Hidden Valley students and the administration of their school.
Read the article in the Roanoke Times written by Neil Harvey.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/65951
