An exceptional way to encourage school spirit is by holding semi-regular pep rallies. These allow students to engage in interactive community-building activities in preparation for events or time off from school. With the return of pep rallies within our school, a diverse variety of opinions sparked interest, reigniting a familiar sense of enthusiasm and camaraderie amongst students and staff alike.
Upon hearing the idea that pep rallies were potentially returning within our school, many individuals expressed their thoughts and criticism towards the events. One particular viewpoint was tremendously insightful, being South Hadley High School’s principal, Elizabeth Wood. Wood exclaimed the reasoning behind why pep rallies were rightfully restricted for some time, was because students were using them as a time to practice malicious habits, not participating in spirit week, and turn, making them unenjoyable to other students. Wood expresses her feelings towards pep rallies by saying it is her favorite way for the community of students to celebrate and have fun all together, and would love to see them return regularly.
Next, we asked the head of the student council, Manny Morales his feelings about pep rallies. Morales explained that after the pandemic, once people were back in school, pep rallies lost their “pep”. He said that this was due to the lack of school spirit, safety issues, and generally low morale. Morales stated that he would like to see them come back regularly and that the April 12th pre-break pep rally was a step in the right direction.
Following Morales’s interview, we wanted to collect a general staff perspective on the previous issue. We spoke to the science teacher David Harms who expressed his feelings about the pep rallies within our school. He said that the reasoning behind why pep rallies got temporarily banned was that people no longer wanted to participate in them and show school spirit. He shared his high school pep rally experience by saying that his school had them before sporting events to get the students and athletes fired up for them, now he doesn’t understand the timing of them.
To form a more generalized student opinion, Colin Zraunig shared his opinions on pep rallies. Zraunig agreed that pep rallies form a sense of community within our school, but the lack of communication between staff and students on the reasons why they got suspended in the first place marked the downfall of school spirit and pep rallies as a whole. “It almost seemed like they (pep rallies) were banned due to students having fun”, Zraunig stated. He added that some of the newly added games limited student participation in its entirety.
The consensus gathered from staff is that they believe pep rallies were banned due to the lack of school spirit, and an incident that occurred during a 2023 pep rally where students got too rough during tug of war, which sparked the idea of temporarily suspending pep rallies as a whole. Most would love to see pep rallies make a return, and hope that they are successful in the future. This past Friday (4/12), the student council held a pep rally that turned out to be a great success. Students were very engaged in many activities such as pie face, a raffle for Ms. Wood’s parking space, and the classic tug of war. This was a tremendous contrast to the pep rallies that have been held in the past. 
