Leslie Gill
Whether it’s the competition between grade levels, the outrageous costumes, hallway decorations, or the out of control Pep Rally, students seem to enjoy some aspect of Spirit Week. While I personally got more excited and involved than I ever have during Spirit Week, many students are complaining about the turnout.
Like every year, Spirit Week has different themes on each day that students can dress up for. This year, Student Council decided to not use some of the traditional themes, such as flashback day or pajama day. Like many other students, I was disappointed when flashback day didn’t return. Who doesn’t want to rock the 80’s look? With this year’s Spirit Week theme being “Hereford Goes Hollywood,” one of the days involved dressing up as each grade’s assigned movie genre.
The seniors had the horror genre, and while I’m all for students dressing up, I refuse to put on zombie makeup. Sorry I’m not sorry. The themes, unfortunately, did not live up to students’ expectations. Amanda Keyser (11) said, “I didn’t like the themes for what to wear each day, I definitely think we could have more creative and fun themes.”
As for Pep Rally, the controlled chaos was definitely calmer this year. Sure, it might have saved some teachers’ hearing, but students weren’t getting into it as much as they could have. The freshman corner was dead silent, but that’s inevitable. There was the usual rival between the juniors and seniors, but the class of 2013 had a hard time getting pumped up. Maybe it was the fact that we weren’t allowed to say “freshmen suck” that got us down in the dumps.
As a senior, I was really looking forward to being super-obnoxious and showing the underclassmen who’s boss, but like Sophie Dedeo (12) said, “It was kind of downplayed from past years, and not as many people participated this year.” Where’s the school spirit Hereford?
When I think of the homecoming dance, I picture a bunch of sweaty, dancing teenagers shoved in a gym. However this year, many students did not show up. Social studies teacher Mr. Todd Hartshorn said he was “disappointed” with the lack of students at the homecoming dance, even though he thought that Spirit Week was a “great success.”
I had fun at the homecoming dance but the DJ still could be better, as always. Student Council should survey the students on what kind of music they want to dance to, since everyone I talked to was not happy with the music choice. Amanada gave the DJ a “thumbs down.” Because there were students throwing water during the dance, all of the lights were turned on while we got scolded for our behavior. We all know nothing gets a Hereford student more riled up than turning the lights on at homecoming.
Although this year’s Spirit Week and homecoming dance was a let down, students should really get involved in Student Council to help with the process. There’s only so much Student Council can do; it is up to us students to make the best of it. Word of advice to the underclassmen: participate! You’ll regret not getting involved when these four years are over.
