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 The stigma of the Ball Smashers, AKA The Plastics.
11/05/16 07:56 PM
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Throughout this season it has always made me a little sad that the Ball Smashers, or Plastics, as many continue to call them have been treated with such disdain. A lot stemming from prior experience with cliques, exclusion and overall bad high school memories.
I was quite drawn to this group of young ladies and impressed with their well roundedness. All went to school, all but Shelby had jobs, were well spoken. But they looked a certain way. They did not relate so much to the late night crew and gravitated to each other.
My experience as an adult with the “plastics” world has altered any previous impressions I ever had of this type of group.
For the past 8 years I have been going into the unified school district as a volunteer with my Animal Assisted Therapy dog. We visited 3 high school special needs/special ed classes. I had a lot of opportunity to observe high schoolers. One school I visited on Friday. Game day !! My kids would walk my oversized long coated Akita around the campus. Everyone stopped. But the nicest people to these special kids were the cheerleaders and athletes. They always made an effort to include whichever kid I was with, learn their name and use it the next week, and talk to them as they were petting the dog. The kids had such a feeling of importance and acceptance from this simple act of kindness. Not everyone bothered.
So when I hear such disapproval of a group of young ladies because of old high school prejudices and bad experiences, it makes me sad and just a little pissed off.
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