High school vandalized after football game
By Lacey Beasley
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MOBILE, Alabama (WALA) — While the McGill Murphy game usually ends with the winning team painting the cannon at the loop, this year, the celebration seeped onto Murphy’s campus.
Surveillance video from Friday night captured a rowdy crowd on the corner of Old Government Street.
McGill students celebrating after they shutout Murphy 38-0. The celebration lasted for hours, with paint flung in the air and chanting.
“There were throngs of kids running out, which is normal after a game,” said Bryan Olson, a witness. “With the cannon, we’ve seen it painted a zillion colors. This time was different because there were kids in the streets, traffic going by, and buckets of paint flying in the air.”
Orange also flew on Murphy’s campus. Paint was sprayed across the mascot and walls: “MCT” for McGill-Toolen Catholic. Most of it was cleaned up today.
Back at the cannon, flowerbeds were stomped on, and there was a trail of paint on the sidewalks leading to the cannon.
“It was barbaric,” said Olson. “I want kids to feel like they can do the things their grandparents did and their parents did, and that’s great, but my god, somebody could’ve gotten hurt.”
With hundreds of kids in the streets throughout Friday night, he said something could have gone terribly wrong.
“It would have been really easy with kids jumping in the highway, throwing buckets of paint, somebody could have gotten hurt,” he said.
He also said parents were dropping their kids off by the cannon like it was “daycare.” He said he’s never seen so many people in the streets after a football game like this before.
He said he hopes the tradition carries on, but in a much safer way next time.
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