The spirit dance rally on Nov. 1 marked the end of Spirit Week. Last month, the Associated Student Body has been planning for all activities and events leading up to that, Sophomore Class President Nysa Bhat said.
“Different people with different roles have had jobs in organizing Spirit Week,” Bhat said. “The four class presidents have been going over shirt designs, dance practices, float materials and it definitely was a lot of work.”
Senior Site Council Representative Mahogany Grissom said a big discussion during Spirit Week keeping the games fair.
“There was a large debate around who really got first place during the Wrap Your VP game because seniors hadn’t wrapped Teddy Butler’s head,” Grissom said. “Originally, (we were going to) wipe (the points of that game) out of the scoring system because rules weren’t clear, and there was a lot of miscommunication. During our last meeting, however, (ASB Adviser Matt) Hall brought the topic up again because according to the ASB Constitution, points/scores cannot be changed during Spirit Week.”
In addition to the fairness of games, Grissom said another unresolved item that ASB needs to spend more time on is the hostility between grades during rallies, such as when the seniors all sat down during the spirit dance of the juniors.
“For the future, I think we need to look more into how to control rivalry among grades,” Grissom said. “In doing so, I think it would make Spirit Week more enjoyable for our officers instead of having to worry about the public eye questioning the ways that we handle issues like cheating during games.”
Despite how other grades reacted to their dance, Grissom said she was impressed by the energy and enthusiasm demonstrated by the juniors.
“I think the juniors did a really good job with their numbers and creativity in their attire every day,” Grissom said. “During lunch rallies, you could see they had the largest group of people in the stands. Almost every day of the week they won best-dressed out of everyone. It goes to show how much passion they had for representing their class.”
Freshman Class President Ashley Meyer said she is proud of her class during Spirit Week, given that it was their first year at Paly.
“I think our grade did a good job for our first year at Spirit Week,” Meyer said. “For the float, we had many people come and help make it, and we were able to finish with the final product very quickly. I love how our class was able to come together and work to create something.”
While Bhat said she was also happy with her class’s achievements during Spirit Week, she said she hopes Spirit Week will be able to evolve into more of a social event than a competition in the future.
“A lot of people during the games claimed grades were cheating, or that judges were marking classes on sportsmanship for stupid things,” Bhat said. “But in my opinion, these things should not have mattered. It’s a competition, but at the end it was more of a class bonding event. During Spirit Week, especially during float building, I really got to know my class and meet many people. It was awesome.”
ASB is taking a week off but will resume its duties Monday, According to Meyer.
“After this week we will jump right back into planning events for this year,” Meyer said.
Grissom said the focus of the group will include breaking into small groups and discussing the issues, including an anti-vape committee, an advisory committee and a vlog committee.