That's the Spirit: Destruction during Homecoming

Photo by Nicolaj Arroyo

By Hayden Murry

Student Life Editor

October 2021

Homecoming; a week filled with wacky dress-up days, an exuberant pep rally in preparation for a big football game, and finished off with a dance. This is a week we usually associate with school pride and unity, however this year we saw division and destruction.

In the weeks leading up to homecoming, students posted on various social media platforms critiquing the school spirit days. Despising them to such an extent that many students ended up creating their own themes, spreading them throughout Snapchat and Instagram. Many of the unofficial days consisted of a “senior citizen day”, “gender-swap day”, and the coveted “character day”. For the most part, however, students ended up participating with the school-sponsored spirit days.

“I didn’t like that people wanted to change the homecoming dress up days because they were picked out at the start of September,” says junior and Student Senate member, Jena Loerke. She continues, “I also didn’t like how the teachers [advisors to Student Senate] were picking the dress-up days. We didn’t really get a choice, they just told us that those were the days we were doing”.

Unfortunately, issues only increased in severity as homecoming week started. Throughout the week, coinciding with the typical, harmless tradition of TPing, students’ property was vandalism. Cars, not only ones that belonged to students, but also family members, along with houses were egged. Many more devious and downright disturbing acts were also carried out, including the addition of condiments to gas tanks, stealing, and countless fights.

“ My car was egged during the senior tp night. To add onto that, someone also put MAGA in shaving cream on the back of my car! I also got egged while I was TPing on my head, which hurt a lot. Honestly I believe that it was way more mischievous this year because we were all in quarantine for so long now people don't know how to act” recalls senior Jayda Mckinley.

With the increase of more troubling expressions of school spirit, students wonder what future homecomings will look like. Will administration enforce more restrictions on homecoming activities? Will spirit days bend to the satisfaction of every student? With the troubling acts carried out this year, and the lack of discipline paired with, it’s hard to tell what next year will bring.

“I think they might have more hold on the dress up days but i don’t think it would make much of a difference of it being fun. Each year the senior pranks get worse and worse because they don’t let the students do much,” Jena, who will experience her last homecoming next year, says. “I think eventually the senior pranks will be gone in general. They just might not have them at all.”