One of my main problems with school is the lack of school spirit. All four years of high school I have slowly watched as students have been less and less involved in school. But, I don’t think that is fair just to blame the student. Teachers are a big part of school and they are also bringing down the school spirit just as much as the students.  

In the past, West actually used to be a fun school to go to. But now I find myself not wanting to be here. My sophomore year I remember a pep assembly and Cranson brought out the spirit stick and we were all yelling our class chants. The sophomores won it for the first time. We were so excited that we all rushed the floor and were jumping around and yelling at the top of our lungs. Then the next week comes and the school gets mad for our behavior and takes it away for good. We have now never used the spirit stick again and probably never will. This event made me feel as though we were being punished for being so hyper and excited.

Now it has just gotten worse from that. We have all recently heard that as a school we are getting Prom.  As a girl who has seen movies her entire life about how big this night is for everyone, I am more than excited for it, especially after a full year of missing events like this. But, because of some of the new Covid rules, I have heard kids whining and complaining about not getting to wear high heels. Open your eyes people, some other schools don’t even get this opportunity! Be grateful that we even get one. Who cares if you can’t wear heels? We all know that your feet are hurting by the end of the night anyways and that you end up taking them off.  Also everyone always says how lame it is., you should think of this:  It’s up to you to make the dance fun. Students don’t make it fun when they show up wasted or high. Sometimes they don’t even show up at all.

On top of the students being like that, some teachers have been in our ears about how it is such a bad idea. Mr. David Falter is one of my teachers and he opened up to me about how he thinks that Prom isn’t a good idea. Yet, is it really appropriate for a teacher who can change people’s mind about things to voice his opinion? I have directly heard a student say that they don’t want to go because their teachers were bad mouthing the event and telling them that itwill not be fun at all. I have my own experiences with it too.  Falter’s wrong;  it’s a great idea and time to celebrate our school again.

Even April Fools’ Day was a sign of the times changing.  A lot of people used to participate in fun pranks around the school and you would hear about it for days. But this year, it seems like almost nothing has happened all year. The teachers used to play pranks on each other. It was fun. West was fun. My two older sisters who did not graduate long before me had way better bonds with their teachers and went to every school events and talk about how everyone was there.   All I hear about now is kids and teachers getting quarantined and how we need to be better about masks. I have not heard one teacher talk about sports. I know that it has been hard to go and watch the games, but they don’t even announce wins anymore. 

I know that a lot of people will try to blame Covid for this year being so bad. But this decline has been going on for years. I don’t know if it will ever go back to the way it used to be in the past, times when everyone was at all the sporting events or when teachers used to get excited about certain things going on in the school.

Teachers should work harder to make things fun and then high school will be more enjoyable. We deserve teachers that we will remember loving their school and supporting us for who were were in that most important part of our life.