Girard Pennsylvania high school paddlings in 1983 - assistance needed, please.

I need to obtain information concerning an incident 20 years ago in
Girard, Pennsylvania, in which a number of the seniors at Girard High
School were the subjects of a mass paddling.

According to what I was told, something of a local tradition existed
there, where with each year's first snow the students would take their
lunch trays outside and slide down a hill next to the school. In the
fall of 1983, the principal had made it clear he wanted this to stop,
citing safety concerns, etc. Alas, come the first snow a bunch of
seniors went out and slid down the hill in defiance of his edict. The
offenders were offered a choice between all-day Saturday detention or
a paddling, and about five guys and five girls chose to be paddled.
The parents of one of the girls complained afterwards, and the story
allegedly got into the newspapers at the time.

I have gone to the website of the Erie Times News and find their
archives go back only to 1996. My purpose in making this post is to
ask if any readers here recall the incident I've described, or could
give me some advice on where to obtain copies of what media coverage
it was given.

If anyone knows anything about this, please contact me at


Thank you,

Megan Lowry