It took $1.4 million and years of hard work to approve and build the new South Lakes turf fields.

All of this went down the drain due to a recent vandalism believed to be committed by Herndon students.

High school rivalries are one of the most invigorating aspects of high school. Each rivalry game takes hype to a whole new level and embodies the essence of school spirit. But, when a school takes it too far things blow over quickly. In the case of the recent vandalism, our rivalry was taken to the extreme.

The Herndon vandalism was not actually an isolated act but more of a culmination of last year’s vandalism war. And in this case, Herndon actually cannot be held solely responsible as it was the culmination of last year’s war. Both schools are to blame.

Neither school wants to cancel games between South Lakes and Herndon, but action is necessary to deter similar vandalism acts.

With the anticipation of Friday’s South Lakes-Herndon football game, the cancelation of the game would only worsen the vandalism war. The only way this can be achieved is providing a different outlet to express feelings about the rivalry.

To solve this problem, our schools should be inspired by NC State’s response to a similar trend in vandalism on its campus. Vandalism used to be a recurrent issue on the campus in advance of rivalry games.

The university decided to designate a tunnel as the “free expression tunnel,” which allowed both NC State and rival students an opportunity to graffiti or “decorate” and create art on a neutral space with no threat of punishment. At NC State, vandalism subsided significantly after the implementation of the tunnel.

If the same opportunity was available here, a similar, positive result would occur as the rivalry could return to one of respect for each other’s property.

Taking such an approach to combat vandalism would restore the respectful rivalry between South Lakes and Herndon.

To see a picture of NC State’s free expression tunnel, click here.