I know about Hill City because my first play, Allie In Wonderland, was first performed there. I wrote it, five years ago now, for some of these kids. The two in the picture here, were part of the original Allie cast.

The Absolutely True Story of Tom Sawyer According To Becky Thatcher was also performed there for the first time. I completed the script to that show less then a block away from the high school. I've eaten lunch there, performed there, lived there for three months. It's a town I dearly love, but at the moment, I'm saddened by.

In a town that small, I'm sure you can imagine how small the school is. According to http://www.high-schools.com, total enrollment is 166. Of those 166 students, 36 are seniors. Tonight, Feb 25, 2014, was their last home basketball game of the season.

In many schools across the state and the nation, the last home game is often recognized as "Senior Night." I've seen it at high school football games, basketball games, etc. It's a chance for the coaches, faculty, parents and fans to cheer and recognize the hard working athletes, cheerleaders, sports managers in their last home game. The two young people above, Morgan McCullough and Katie Bradshaw, are Hill City High School seniors. But they are not part of "the team", they are members of the band. And tonight, at their last home game as pep band members they did not get recognized alongside their classmates.

And here's the kicker, they were promised they would be recognized and then that offer was rescinded. They were told they COULD be recognized at their spring concert. Which, according to Katie, has "minimum to no attendance" and which she has "never seen" happen. So what did these brave students do? As you can see, they stood up and made themselves recognized.

Let me put this out here right now, I have no problems with sports. I think sports has their place in high schools as much as music, theater, and the arts. As I'm typing this, I'm wearing a tee-shirt recognizing a Big 12 collegiate team, a hoodie from an area high school, and a Major League baseball cap. I got to sporting events. I even played sports for a little while in middle school and in high school.

But what I do have a problem with is athletes getting greater recognition then others. Weather they be players, managers or cheerleaders, they are NOT more important then their classmates who work just as hard, put in as many hours, with none of the glory and recognition. I fear and feel that this brings forth a culture of entitlement that carries on into later adulthood.

Do you want to know what this band and their members have done for Hill City High School and USD 281? From Katie,

We have played pep band since sixth grade, long before the seniors who were recognized tonight played on that court, before the cheerleaders wore those uniforms, before the managers worked with the coaches. I have never ridden on a class float during the homecoming parade, because I have always marched. I have played in half times at college football games. I have taken music to contests and played in honor bands. I have played with Dallas Brass. I've played jazz band on top of a mountain in Aspen at a ski resort.

These band members were ambassadors for their school, but more then that, they were torchbearers and played as important a role in athletics as the athletes on the field or the court. In Biblical times, musicians often preceded the armies into battle and in beginning in the 16th century in Europe, armies would often have a drum and fife player who would play uplifting music to encourage the troops, as well as be used to convey orders. What is the purpose of a high school pep band but to uplift and encourage the crowd of spectators and the athletes. They work in conjunction with cheerleaders often times.

I'm writing about this, not because Morgan and Katie are friends of mine (although they are), not because I'm disappointed in a school or a town (although I am), but because this is symptomatic of our culture. We like to separate the "jocks" from the "geeks". We like to pigeonhole and ghettoize groups of people. We place a disproportionate amount of praise on our student athletes while marginalizing and ignoring our student artists. I graduated high school almost 20 years ago, from a much larger high school, and felt the same thing. Student artists get the shaft while student athletes get the praise. I had hoped that our society had progressed beyond that.

I've blogged about this before, but it bears repeating; arts in education is vital to making our country better. Studies have "found that learning music facilitates learning other subjects and enhances skills that children inevitably use in other areas. “A music-rich experience for children of singing, listening and moving is really bringing a very serious benefit to children as they progress into more formal learning,” says Mary Luehrisen, executive director of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation, a not-for-profit association that promotes the benefits of making music." (PBS, 2013). And according to Fran Smith in a 2009 article on Edutopia, the website of The George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF), "Involvement in the arts is associated with gains in math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skill. Arts learning can also improve motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork."

Smith goes on to cite a 2005 Rand Corporation study which states, "can connect people more deeply to the world and open them to new ways of seeing," meaning, basically, the arts can make a person's life BETTER because they [the arts] are sweetening that person's life, causing them to create closer social connections and bonds.

Music education can help with verbal skills, increase IQ, develop Spatial-Temporal skills. The brain works harder, causing increased test scores. Theater education can help with social anxiety and confidence, art education helps with motor skills and decision making. The studies are out there for those who want to look.

Art Education plays a vital role and instead of ignoring those students, instead of promising something and then revoking it, the Hill City School District (and by default ALL schools) should be CELEBRATING our student artists.

I can't do much, but I can applaud these Senior students and I can write about this, and I can encourage you to contact the Hill City School District and let them know of your disappointment in them.

They are on Twitter, tweet at them. Tweet this article at them. Share this article on your Facebook pages and post it on their Facebook page. Hashtag it #Weareseniorstoo so I can track it.

They have a website with all their contact information. Let them know that ignoring their senior student artists is unacceptable.

If you know of other stories like this, contact me via Twitter or my Facebook page or leave a comment below and I'll continue to bring this life. It's time we took a cue from Morgan and Katie and take a stand.