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Did school spirit go too far?
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BATON ROUGE- School spirit comes in all forms, there are cheers fight song and banners.
But Friday night when Parkview Baptist School took on Patterson High School at home in Baton Rouge, some signs may have taken it a little too far.
"I just think they need to learn better sportsmanship and need to understand its just a game," said Parkview parent, Karen Celone.
One of the signs read "Jesus Loves You... unless you attend Parkview, and another read, "Breathe if you hate Parkview," while some donned "I Hate Parkview t-shirts."
"It made me feel sad. Sad for the students sad for the parents instigating that and helping them make that. And I guess coming up with those ideas," said Celone.
News 2 took the pictures to a psychiatrist, Dr. Jesse Lambert, to get in the heads of the people behind the signs.
"It takes it across the line and it goes beyond healthy competitiveness to extreme adverseness," said Dr. Lambert.
He says this type of behavior could get out of control.
"The more personal we get in our attack the more emotional the response will be. Fundamentally it corrupts the whole process. It corrupts the fun of the game," said Lambert.
And although it's in fun parents shouldn't condone this type of behavior.
"Keep it civilized, have fun, support your team, but don't make it personal. And certainly as parents it's imperative not to model this type of behavior so youth won't perceive it as okay,"
As for this Celone, she's turning it over to the man in the sign.
"Don't worry about the people. Maybe we need to pray for them and we would never do that," said Celone.
The principal at Patterson High School said the students behind the signs were disciplined but didn't elaborate on their punishments.
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