Six hundred fifty out of 2,336. That’s how many students attended this year’s fall pep session out of our entire student body.

This year, the pep session was held in between first and second period at 8:30 a.m. Fewer students attended this pep session compared to last year when all students attended during iPass. School spirit has declined, and the restrictions and the new applications for school events are not helping.

Since last year, students needed to apply for a school dance and then get approval to attend. Those with poor grades, spotty attendance or any disciplinary offenses were not allowed to attend. This year, that same process has been implemented for SHS’s pep sessions, and it prevents students from being able to show their spirit and pride for their school.

Why would a student want to express school spirit if they’re not allowed to?

Additionally, this year there are no outside guests allowed at both Homecoming and the Snowcoming dance. This means that if someone is not a student enrolled at SHS, they are not allowed to attend. It’s important to talk about why these restrictions are in place.

Last year at Homecoming, multiple fights broke out between students. It is rumored that these students did not attend SHS, which is why the decision to ban all outside students from attending this year’s homecoming dance was made.

While there are restrictions and bans that deter students from attending these school events, SHS does provide quite a few opportunities to encourage school spirit, one being free athletic event admission if students have their IDs. This is a great way to encourage school spirit among students.

But, the crowd for sporting events has been different compared to last year. There has always been a fairly large crowd, but now there aren’t as many students that attend these games. It could be for a multitude of reasons such as schoolwork, work or transportation issues. Regardless of the reason, we all need to take better advantage of the resources we are given.

Another way to help boost spirit could be having a better sense of community. Yes, spirit clubs promote and boost athletic events, but it’s not enough. This can be brought through teachers and administrators being more encouraging for each student to have involvement. Whenever we have an engaging and welcoming environment, we will be a better school with a proud school spirit.

But students need to do their part too. They should should start attending games, dressing the themes and expressing themselves through our school spirit. We have the resources to become more proud of our school and more spirited, but it shouldn’t be forced or restricted.