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Dear Parents, The fall pep rally is an annual tradition for most high schools in New England and HHS is certainly no exception. This is the day that many of our students look forward to most in the entire year and remember long after their high school years are over. By now, I’m sure many of you have heard about some changes coming to our pep rally day this year. I want to communicate to you our rationale behind these changes and some of the concerns on the part of teachers, students and parents that we are trying to address.
Unfortunately, over the past several years, the way we have been doing the pep rally has become emotionally and physically unsafe for some of our students. In the past five or so years, we have had a tradition of having a color for each class. These colors, while promoting unity among a particular class, have detracted from the overall school unity that should accompany a day such as this one. The focus has turned more towards competition and contention between the classes, rather than school spirit and the celebration of our sports teams and the general sense of pride in our school. In addition, there have been incidents of harassment and bullying that have come as a result of students in one class intimidating or targeting students in another class. In recent years, the upper classmen have started a practice of “tagging” 9th graders (who have worn all white) with their class color, either with a marker or a can of colored hairspray. Last year, teachers reported that some 9th graders hid in the bathrooms or classrooms during passing time on pep rally day for fear of being “tagged” by upper classmen. This type of behavior is unacceptable in our school and is completely against what we are trying to achieve with programs such as Unite (our 9th grade transition program) and our Advisory program which promotes acceptance and tolerance of all students.
In addition, the previous practice of seniors entering the rally by running in and slamming themselves together in the middle of the Athletic Center has produced an unsafe physical situation that has resulted in two students becoming seriously injured in the past two years. As the principal of the school, I cannot allow a practice such as this, which puts the physical safety of students in jeopardy, to continue.
To address these issues, we have made a decision that 9th – 11th graders will be asked to wear green on Pep Rally day rather than individual class colors. Seniors will continue to wear orange, which is the color that they have worn for the past two years. All classes will be allowed to order t-shirts for their individual classes and will be able to choose the wording and style as in previous years. In future years, we will likely ask all students to wear a combination of school colors rather than having classes assigned a specific color. The purpose of this change is to promote school spirit as a whole rather than competition among individual classes and to keep one class from being a target for other classes. In terms of the seniors entrance they will be asked to work together with their class advisors to design an entrance to the Pep Rally that does not put anyone’s physical safety in danger.
We are also currently working with student leaders to find ways to make the rally itself more interactive and fun for all of the students and to think about other ways that classes can express school spirit rather than just how they are dressed. The class officers and the student council members will be working with the class advisors and administrators to ensure that all students have a fun, safe and memorable experience at Pep Rally this year.
This is my 8th year as an administrator at Hopkinton High School and I am well aware of the passion and attachment of our students to their Pep Rally day. My goal in making these changes is to ensure that the tradition of Pep Rally can continue in a safe and positive way for years to come. I hope that you will support us as we try to steer this important event in a more positive direction that will unite our school and ensure the physical and emotional safety of all of our students.
Sincerely, Alyson Geary, M.Ed. Principal |
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