With football season in full swing, administrators have encouraged students and faculty participation to celebrate school spirit, but students share their take after seeing fewer students engaging in dress-up days.
Senior Logan Kasper has noticed a decrease in the general spirit this school year.
“Not everybody is as involved in the spirit aspect anymore,” Kasper said. “A lot of people were complaining about the themes this year.”
While Kasper said student council shared information to the student body, he said there could have been stronger communication to further inform everyone about the theme days.
“We only really made one post and there weren’t any announcements or anything over the board,” Kasper said. “There weren’t any signs except for the big one in the cafeteria, and you’d really have to know about it to look for it.”
The themes for the dress-up days were:
- Monday:
- Tuesday:
- Wednesday:
- Thursday:
Freshman Grace Beasley’s experience during last week’s spirit days was a first-hand example of issues with dress-up themes.
“I wanted to be a baby, but also I didn’t think anyone was going to be a baby, “ Beasley said. “It’s kind of just embarrassing, like we’re like the babies of the school, and we don’t really want to be walking around dressed as babies.”
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Aledo High School students and faculty discuss dress-up days after this past homecoming week’s scant student participation compared to the previous year’s spirit days due to announcement issues and disputes over the week’s dress-up themes.
Compared to last year’s homecoming week and other spirit days throughout the year, Aledo High School’s students have had significantly less participation during the 2024 homecoming week spirit days. This is thought to be due to communication issues, little planning time, and student support for themes.-
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Senior Logan Kasper has noticed a decrease in the general spirit this school year.
“Not everybody is as involved in the spirit aspect anymore,” Kasper said. “A lot of people were complaining about the themes this year.”
Students, regardless of class, have had issues with last week’s themes. However, freshmen have had a fraction of the issues with the themes. Freshman Grace Beasley’s experience during last week’s spirit days was a first-hand example of issues with dress-up themes.
“I wanted to be a baby, but also I didn’t think anyone was going to be a baby, “ Beasley said. “It’s kind of just embarrassing, like we’re like the babies of the school, and we don’t really want to be walking around dressed as babies.”
Many students have had opinions of the themes, but these aren’t the only issues with spirit days. Some students have also noticed communication issues between the student council and the student body.
“We only really made one post and there weren’t any announcements or anything over the board”, Kasper said. “And there weren’t any signs except for the big one in the cafeteria, and you’d really have to know about it to look for it”
However the student council has been making numerous announcements, but not in the places students tend to look.
“We announce it over announcements, we have it on our social media pages, Mr. Martineck sent it out in his newsletter, and we’ve put it on Aledo High School’s Instagram page.” Student council advisor Alyssa Calder said, “Between emails, announcements, and our social media we try. We also have posters in the cafeteria and around both schools about all the dress-up days, and we try really hard to get the word out so kids know when to dress up.”
Student council has been trying to spread the word about dress-up days, but their attempts aren’t exactly as productive as they would like. Information isn’t being relayed about spirit days, making it a major factor in why there isn’t a lot of participation.
Students throughout Aledo High School have participated significantly less in spirit days so far this school year. “It just kind of seems that the spirit is kind of struggling overall this year,” Kasper said.
