In the wake of the recent vandalism events that affected both South Lakes and Herndon, as well as in anticipation of tomorrow’s Baron Cameron Bowl, leadership students from both schools created a video shown today in third period.

The video promoted a friendly rivalry between the crosstown rivals.

“We don’t need to hate each other to be rivals,” senior and leadership member Allie Micka said. “We made a video to focus our rivalry on the field.”

Senior and Executive Council member Rebecca Malaret filmed and edited the video, which featured representatives from both Herndon and South Lakes, including Principal Kim Retzer and Herndon Principal William Bates.

Herndon and South Lakes leadership students held a meeting last week to brainstorm ways to ensure a “fun feud.”

“The video is totally student driven,” Malaret said. “We initiated the meeting and we do not want others to see this as just a message from the administration. It is more effective as a student-initiated video. ”

Although the vandalism affected both schools and garnered attention on local news broadcasts, leadership students wanted to ensure that the main focus of the video was not the vandalism acts.

“The vandalism hurt both of our schools and the community,” Malaret said. “But, the video serves to not focus on the vandalism, but return to the friendly rivalry South Lakes and Herndon can be.”

Malaret does not want for the rivalry to completely disappear.

“The rivalry dates back to 1980 as we said in the video,” Malaret said. “We want to have a ‘friendly feud’ and still say ‘we’re gonna beat you.’ With the video, we wanted to relieve the tension.”