Dear Student Council,
Pep assemblies are a staple of the average high school experience, and at LHS, the same is true. At the winter pep assembly, however, we noticed a glaring problem: the number of students who showed up. At this pep assembly, it was glaringly obvious how empty the gym was, and not just in one particular section. All of them seemed to be missing students. This begs the question, where is everyone?
It seems to start at the games, specifically, the participants. Honoring all of the sports that are in season and all of the different clubs is great, but by including all of the students who participate in multiple clubs, it ends up representing a very narrow group of students. Along with that, only including seniors makes the group even more narrow.
LHS has so much to offer, so why not show it off at pep rallies? By selecting the same group of people who are in multiple clubs at every pep rally to participate, we can’t show off one of the most unique parts about our school: the diversity.
Most of the student body at LHS isn’t involved in clubs or sports or student government, and if they know they won’t be involved in the pep assembly, why would they go? The assemblies become predictable and repetitive when the same group of students get to participate and the rest of the student body is left to watch.
If students are made to feel as though they are participating rather than just spectating, more people are willing to come and will be excited about the pep rally. In order to do this, we need to have better representation. This could be done by leaning into people’s talents and showing off how much the students have to offer, such as having a riff off between choirs or competitions between whole clubs, rather than just including the seniors from the “bigger” clubs such as FBLA or DECA.
In order to do this, we need to make the games more audience-participation centered, rather than pre-selecting people to participate. This allows students to feel like they are part of the school and they are welcomed in the pep rallies, instead of pushed to the side and made to watch their peers who are seemingly more important than them have fun.
At other schools, there are trophies handed out to clubs or whole classes for winning games at the pep rally, which encourages friendly rivalry and competition in the school, yet keeps it centered in an environment where competition is welcomed. An example of this could be a dodgeball game where different classes face off against each other in a tournament-style, where the winning class gets a trophy of some kind.
Pep rallies are a chance to showcase how talented the student body is and are times when the whole school comes together to celebrate each other, but by not including everyone, a message is sent to the rest of the student body that they are not as important if they aren’t involved in sports or clubs. If diversity is one of the main factors that brings people here, we need to show that we have it rather than pretending we do.
Sincerely,
The Staff of The Lion’s Roar
