This year at the annual DingBat Rally, every class was up on their feet cheering as their classmates participated in the fun activities planned by ASB. Well, every class except for the seniors. Although the Dragons have never exactly been the most spirited, this year is exceptionally worse.
With COVID taking up the majority of their freshmen year, the Dragons never got to experience a true rally until sophomore year. This made it difficult for the class to bond as a whole because they lost an entire year of their time together, which could possibly be the reason behind their lack of spirit. Seniors also seem to be blaming their student council members for the apathy displayed amongst the students sitting in the back section.
“Instead of the student council members being their own little clique, they have to integrate council members and people with a lot of spirit through the senior section so that people are in a contagious environment instead of separated from everyone else,” said senior Nicole Santos.
Being the sister class to the Dragons is becoming difficult for the Sharks since they don’t have anyone to do cheers with. The common chant, “Blue and green, dream team,” is not a very accurate representation compared to the juniors and freshmen.
The underclassmen usually look up to the seniors for being role models, but the lack of interest in school spirit is creating a bad influence on the freshmen class. At the Dingbat Rally this year, seniors were seen sitting instead of standing and cheering on their classmates. This behavior could create a lack of excitement for the underclassmen when the seniors aren’t encouraging them to be louder and more involved.
“I think this affects the freshmen a little because it is one of the first rallies we have had and we look up to the seniors at events like this,” said freshman student council member Olivia Phillip.
In addition to the rally itself, Spirit Week was canceled due to a lack of spirit and going against the dress code guidelines. While it is hard to completely blame the senior class, there was definitely a huge percentage of the Dragons that did not dress up. Coming to school on spirit week only to see the halls flooded with sweatpants and hoodies instead of fun costumes was a severe letdown.
“Spirit is so important because when one class steps down, it ruins the vibes for the others as well,” said junior student council member Emilia Luis. “It also gives them the reputation of being less into it and less spirited.”
Although the junior class takes pride in all of their spirit, it is unfortunate that they can not share it with the other upperclassmen. Hopefully, before the school year ends, the seniors will step up their game and become more spirited in their final days in high school.
