Losing Spirit

Lately, school spirit seems to be slowly disappearing among students. Pep rally attendance is dwindling, spirit week looked sparse, and overall upper and lower classmen aren’t as into the spirit anymore. School spirit is meant to bring the campus together and create an upbeat environment that gets students excited about being a part of the school and feeling connected to their peers. Without it, a school can begin to become less of a friendly feeling place, and students won’t feel united.  

This year there has been a noticeable decline in pep. There were almost no upperclassmen that signed up to play in the Powderpuff games, and there wasn’t a lot of excitement around the event. During spirit week, there were a considerable amount of students who didn’t participate. Even most class officers did not show their school spirit. A probable cause of this could be that spirit week started on a Tuesday after a Monday holiday, leaving only three days to dress up for the homecoming game on Thursday night. Most students probably didn’t even realize that it was spirit week because the advertisement for it was not widespread.

The easier the theme to do the more people will dress up. Maroon out and pajama day both had significant amounts of students and teachers that partook in the festivities, but decades day had very few attendees. For many, harder themes to dress up for, such as decades day, result in harder costumes to put together. If spirit week consisted of easy dress up days that required simple costumes to put together it might attract more participants.

Pep rallies have also been lacking in spirit, as well as being low in attendance. With there only being a few pep rallies, students should be taking advantage of the opportunities to be with fellow students and celebrate the school. Classrooms designated for students who don’t want to attend pep rallies have been growing in size, and most upperclassmen have off periods at the end of the day which make the student turnout for pep rallies lacking in size.

Due to the many restrictions put on pep rallies and other events displaying school spirit, such as the senior festivities that took place on the first day of school, student pride and enthusiasm is down. Seniors in the past have had more opportunities to display school spirit because of the smaller amount of restrictions, and this year you can tell a difference in the school spirit. The rules placed and enforced at these school events makes it harder to enjoy and have fun.

With all that being said, Student Council has been working on improving school spirit, especially now that our top rival, Westlake, is gone and intends to get everyone excited about showing school spirit and participating in school events.