Education: Where Are You, Helga Sue?

• Share

When Helga Sue Gromowitz failed to keep an appointment with her guidance counselor at Twin Lakes High School in West Palm Beach, Fla., the counselor was not particularly surprised. After all, in a school of 2,000 students with a full roster of extracurricular activities, it is not uncommon for a student to miss an appointment or two.

Still, Helga Sue was not just any student. By her junior year the pretty, blue-eyed blonde had amassed a substantial number of honors. She was a member of the Debate Boosters club, the swimming team, the Red Cross club; she had written several stories for the school newspaper; she had been a candidate for the student council and an entrant in a contest to name a Miss Twin Lakes.

So when Helga Sue repeatedly failed to respond to messages rescheduling her appointment, Guidance Counselor Martha Mix began to ask questions. Helga Sue's friends attempted to cover for her by explaining that she was in Minnesota, where her father Claymore was suffering one of his recurring gall bladder attacks. The explanation proved to be imaginary. So did Helga Sue. Twin Lakes High's favorite student did not exist.

Loss of Identity. The need for a Helga Sue became apparent when all-black Roosevelt High was merged with all-white Palm Beach High in 1970. Concerned about racial tension and possible "loss of identity" among students whose familiar teams and clubs had been eliminated through the consolidation, school officials determined to make sure that Twin Lakes had enough honors for everyone−black and white.

"I think we had a queen of something for every day of the week," complained Terri Hanshaw, a senior involved in Helga Sue's creation. It was actually Terri's older sister Melanie who first conceived the idea in the school cafeteria. "We tried to think up the weirdest name we could imagine," she recalls.

In the course of time, Helga Sue grew into a symbol of protest against the size and impersonality of Twin Lakes High−and of solidarity among both black and white students. "Most kids wouldn't lend you a nickel if you were starving," says Terri, "but tell them you needed the money for some project involving Helga Sue, and they'd give you their lunch money."

Helga Sue's name became known throughout the school because she was often paged over the public address system: "Will Helga Sue Gromowitz come to the office? Your mother has brought your lunch." Then there was her ad in the Palm Beach Post, offering walruses for sale.

Not long after she wrote a series of articles on student apathy in the school paper (actually the work of a staffer named Shelly Dodge), Helga Sue announced her candidacy for class treasurer. Her campaign poster−"Helga Sue, We're For You"−was plastered across the cafeteria walls. When she failed to show up for a scheduled campaign speech, an unsuspecting teacher acidly pointed out that her absence was "a perfect example of the student apathy" that Helga Sue herself had criticized. But it was not until the guidance counselor investigated that Helga Sue was officially exposed.