By Roger J. Di Paolo
Record-Courier Editor
What began as a harmless senior prank turned into a showdown with authority at Ravenna High School a century ago.
By the time it ended, the Class of 1909 had learned an unforgettable — and quite painful — lesson. One that cost the 20 graduates their commencement and almost cost them their diplomas.
Raising the class colors from the cupola of the high school had become a traditional rite of spring, but Superintendent E.O. Trescott believed “flag rustles” were disruptive and had issued orders against the practice. Class colors would only be displayed on class days or at commencement, he decided.
On the night of Thursday, May 6, 1909, some of the boys in the senior class made their way to the high school, where they nailed the senior flag to the topmost pinnacle of the school, which was located at Highland Avenue and Walnut Street.
The colors were flying proudly when Trescott arrived at 7 the following morning. He ordered several of the senior boys to remove them.
Seniors Earl Stevens, Forrest Pfile and Max Pitkin went up to the cupola to take down the flag and found that they needed assistance. Principal H.B. Turner corraled three more senior boys to help them.
A crowd of 13 seniors — more than half of the class — gathered on the lawn of the school while the six classmates were struggling with the colors.
“Don’t haul it down,” they told the boys. “We’ll stand by you.”
No further effort was made to lower the flag, according to the Ravenna Republican.
Turner summoned Pitkin to his office and told him that the seniors needed to lower the flag or hire someone to remove it — or face expulsion.
“The class then deliberated on the lawn and voted to take expulsion rather than lower the flag,” the Republican reported. “They then marched up town.”
The defiant — and now truant — seniors left the school grounds and walked to Main Street, where they boarded an electric car for Brady Lake. Several of the young men gave the class yell as the trolley passed through the downtown area.
The class spent the day at Brady Lake, enjoying an impromptu senior picnic.
What they faced upon their return, however, was anything but a picnic. Superintendent Trescott expelled the entire class.
When school resumed the following Monday, the seniors reported for classes after sending a written apology to the school board, requesting reinstatement.
“All the class was at work today,” Trescott told the Kent Courier on May 10, adding, “There will be no commencement, but diplomas will be given to all who earn them.”
The Ravenna Board of Education met two days later to give parents and teachers an opportunity to be heard.
The meeting lasted two hours, with several parents appealing to the board to reinstate the students and allow commencement to be held. Among them was S.F. Hanselman, a prominent Ravenna attorney, whose son, Charles, was a member of the Class of 1909.
Trescott reiterated his stance on “flag rustles,” which he likened to college “horse play” inappropriate for high school students. He added that his decision was based on principle, not personalities, and that he had no choice but to respond to “open defiance of authority.”
The superintendent added that while he would allow the students to return to classes and receive their diplomas, he would no longer treat them as the Class of 1909 — the class, he said, had ceased to exist when it voted to defy his order. There would be no commencement or class functions as a result.
The school board unanimously voted to support Superintendent Trescott and Principal Turner.
The Republican lauded the board and school administrators in an editorial headlined “The Ravenna Trouble.”
The incident at the high school was “doubly unfortunate because it was so uncalled for and so unnecessary,” according to the editorial, which decried the seniors’ “absolute and willful disobedience.”
The students were expelled, the Republican said, not because they displayed their class colors but because they repeatedly refused to remove them.
“There can be no school unless there is an absolute authority from which there can be no appeal,” the Republican stated.
For the Ravenna High School Class of 1909 there was no further appeal from Superintendent Trescott’s absolute authority.
On June 10, 1909, the Republican reported that the school board had met, rehired Principal Turner for $1,200 per year, approved other appointments and taken a number of other actions.
The last item in the story was the board’s approval of diplomas for the 11 boys and nine girls of the Class of 1909. It was published on the day commencement would have been held.