Why is it that whenever something cool happens in the Staples community, a select few have to come along and ruin it?

As somebody who is interested in world events, I was elated when my Facebook news feed was suddenly filled with posts about a conflict inUganda.

Friends of mine who, beforehand, had used Facebook exclusively for liking pictures of them holding red Solo cups were now telling all of their friends to watch a half-hour video about Joseph Kony, a war criminal indicted by the International Criminal Court for the rape and abduction of thousands of Ugandan children. One of the group members even started a Facebook group for Staples students to come together and figure out different ways they could help.

This was the dream for me.

My peers were finally fighting back against the stereotype of Staples students living in a bubble and not caring about the world around them. They were debating effective strategies of charity, spreading ideas for activism events and helping to inform each other about things taking place thousands of miles away. They were getting involved, and I was excited about it.

But then, in typical Staples fashion, it was ruined.

On the second day of the group’s existence, the wall was suddenly filled with nothing but jokes. Some were comparisons of Joseph Kony’s abductions of children to Ash Ketchum’s catching of Pokemon. Some were posts about how Kobe Bryant was a tyrant who must be stopped.

All of them were deplorable.

I’m not particularly passionate about the Kony cause, but it is disheartening to see that the majority of posts on a wall meant for activism are jokes, especially when the topic is as sensitive as child rape and abduction.

Kids have been murdered and raped inUganda, and Staples students can’t even show them one iota of respect.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

The exact same thing happened on the Free Coach Pick Facebook group.

A group of students close to the football coach felt that he was being unfairly treated and started a support group for him.

At first, the comments were all appropriate. The kids were trying to figure out ways they could help their coach, whether it was through paying his bail or spreading a good message about him in the media.

That didn’t last long.

The conversation quickly devolved into a witchhunt for the freshman girl who had “snitched” on the coach. The people posting on the public group may as well have been carrying pitchforks and torches. It was a mob whose need for a scapegoat would not go away.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

It even happens on the event walls for Staples sports events.

What starts off as harmless trash talk between two towns almost always turns into class warfare.

There is no excuse for students on an event wall for a soccer game to be posting the median income of aWestportparents versus aNorwalkparent as if it has any relevancy. It reinforces the idea that Staples students are all a bunch of snobs who have no sense of decency.

Staples should have nice things, but until the students learn how to conduct themselves like decent human beings, they will not have those nice things.