By Alex Lawrence
Business Manager

Friday afternoon during fourth period, Assistant Principal David Small’s voice rang through the Reynolds High School PA system to announce that the Reynolds-Carver game scheduled for that night had been postponed. Later, it was revealed that a student had been shot at Carver High School during a fire drill that day  – the first school shooting in Forsyth County since a 1969 shooting at Hanes Junior High, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.

Thankfully, the student injured at Carver did not receive life-threatening injuries, and the shooter – an 18-year-old student named Christoper Lamont Richardson – was immediately caught by the school resource officer. In the aftermath of the incident, school officials decided that the football game would be played Monday at 6 p.m. in an attempt to overcome the adversity that ended the first week of school. On Saturday, Reynolds Principal Pat Olsen sent out an automated phone call to RJR families and a staff-wide email describing how important it is for everyone to be at the game.

“It is important that all members of cheer, (Dancing) Boots, band and coaching staff make every effort to be there for their teammates, our school and fellow students at Carver,” Olsen wrote in the email. “I would not ask for the extra effort in doing so and attending if I did not believe this to be an important event for all students, our school, the district and the city of Winston-Salem.”

School officials are not the only ones taking the rescheduled game seriously. Many students of RJR are ready to get behind Carver and the Demons.

“I was planning on attending Friday and I do Monday as well,” Reynolds junior Kenan Reed said. “Going to the game shows that we not only have great support for our athletic teams but also support our community when it is in need.”

Although most football games see the fans cheering for their team and against the opponent, this is a big moment for Reynolds and Carver students and others around the county to come out and show that as a district, they are united. Many students who are directly involved with the action on the field know the unity that can come from interacting with other teams.

“A lot of the time before games, dance teams talk to each other, so it’s important that the Carver dance team knows we are there for them,” said junior Emily Potts, a member of the Dancing Boots. “It’s important to show that our school as a whole is supporting them.”

Drew Fisch, who is one of the presidents of the RJR cheering section the Reynolds Rowdies, could not be more adamant in wanting every student to be at Carver on Monday cheering both schools on.

“We need to look at it with a perspective. If that were to ever happen at RJR, we would definitely appreciate the support,” Fisch said. “The theme for the game will be ‘gold out’ because it is both a Carver and RJR color. Simply, we need to support Carver.”

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