By Scott Shephard

WHS Social Studies Department Meeting, 1997?

For several years, I was the chairman of the Watertown High School social studies department. It wasn’t because I was the most capable or that I was power hungry, though. It was because nobody else in the department wanted the job. We would have elections and I would always win. I think that dealing with bureaucratic details like budgeting, revising school policies, and so on would have been slightly less attractive to most of these good people than a visit to the dentist.

Our department meetings were usually fairly routine and always collegial. But sometimes they were beyond surprising as this photo exemplifies. To understand what’s going on here, I need to remind you of one of the more remarkable current events in the US in 1997. Concurrent with the apearance a comet known as Hale Bopp, a cult known as Heaven’s Gate grew in size. Among other things, they believed that in the tail of the comet there was an alien space ship and that if they shed their “earthy containers,” they could catch a ride on the space ship to a new and better world. In all, 39 members were found dead in a rented house - they were victims of a delusion that led to mass suicide. They were all lying neatly in bunkbeds with purple squares covering their faces. They were dressed in robes and matching sneakers and they had armbands on that read “Heaven’s Gate Away Team.” They also had $5.75 in quarters in their pockets because, investigators learned, they thought that would be the cost of the fare from earth to the comet and to their new life. One detective who was on the scene after the suicide said that the experience was like "being on an episode of the Twilight Zone”

Fast forward to this photo. On this day, as I was getting ready for our meeting, my classroom door opened and this group, dressed in robes and bearing lighted candles, marched solemnly in. For a few minutes back then, I guess I had my own cult, though this act was not one of respect, but instead of friendly mockery. How could you not love these people?

I don’t remember the details of the meeting, of course, but this is one gathering I will never forget.

Camera Unknown