Middletown High School is teaching their students the worst kind of jingoism imaginable in their so-called spirit week.

What kind of adults lead a school where the accepted practice is to mock and denigrate the children of neighboring communities?

They officially encourage their students to show contempt for other local schools with their “Nerdy Knights,” “Wimpy Willits,” and “Blue and White Bum” days in which teens are encouraged to wear the colors of their rivals and then humiliate them through ugly stereotyping.

As a teacher at Lower Lake High School, I bitterly resent the gross mischaracterization of my students and our community.

As the coach of the Academic Decathlon, I teach my hearty band of happy learners the important concept of the worthy opponent.

We respect the students at other schools and realize that they are just like us. We practice excellent sportsmanship and applaud winning students at our county competition, without regard for which school they represent.

Should we not be accorded the same courtesy?

Middletown High School has seriously damaged community relations. The students, parents, faculty and alumni of Lower Lake are insulted and upset.

This would be bad enough it were simply some thoughtless student prank, but this was an officially-sanctioned activity, encouraged by supposed adults in their administration. We do not deserve their scorn.

Middletown has violated every standard of common decency that they espouse on their district Web site.

How ironic it is to read their statements, such as these little nuggets: “We foster respectful and positive social interactions. We do not tolerate acts of prejudice and discrimination.”

Really? What hypocrisy.

An apology is not enough. They need to consider what kind of norms they pass on to children and make systemic changes in their culture of ridicule.

Middletown High School – you do not build yourselves up by attacking your neighbors. Making fun of the other children in Lake County makes you a bully at the institutional level. Focus on tolerance, understanding and sportsmanship.

Take a good, long look at yourselves and leave the rest of us alone.

Nancy Harby is a teacher at Lower Lake High School in Lower Lake, Calif.