By Danica Rivera
Picture this: Today’s the day when our school’s football team is matched against a rival school and a pep rally is about to begin at the quad to build up the excitement for tonight’s event. If this was a tv show, the whole school would be cheering on the team as they rushed to the stage. People would be wearing green and black, chanting Highlanders. There would be students gathering up their backpacks to join as the voices of the associated student body (ASB) invite us to watch our school’s performing teams present their skills in preparation for tonight’s game.
In reality, however, barely a hundred students actually arrive at the quad, maybe a handful sporting Granada Hills Charter (GHC) spirit wear.
“When I first arrived in Granada, I was kind of expecting more people to get out word on their pride for this school. Our school’s school spirit is really close to none,” freshman Julian Solorzano said.
School spirit plays a predominant role in students having a connection with their school and peers. It generates enthusiasm within each student, builds up school pride, and encourages a community to come together in regards to supporting their school.
School spirit is typically promoted within high schools as it can moreover, engage its students to apply themselves in social matters and can provide those students with a sense of ownership. This pride and ownership should then lead to a better academic performance as well since students would want to make their school proud.
Although our school’s ASB does provide several occasions for school spirit like fundraisers, spirit weeks, pep rallies, dances, and more, GHC’s students are by and large absent from those occurrences.
Perhaps one issue is that the opportunities for school spirit really do not start until months into the school year.
Other high schools such as John F. Kennedy High School and Cleveland High School held a “Back to School” or “Welcome” week which gave the spotlight to their students and created a collaborative school environment from the very beginning.
Even with not very many students in attendance, more opportunities might create larger groups of students willing to add to the communal spirit of our campus.
“We need more pep rallies, more spirit weeks, and more lunch events,” junior Jordan Higginson said.
Really, a big part of this needs to come from the students though. It is undeniable that one of the only visible ways we see school spirit is during sports games, especially with the seniors “Jungle.” These seniors dress up according to a certain theme posted to a student-led account on Instagram.
“I’m excited because being a part of the Jungle is one of the only times of the year where we can show school spirit because there aren’t a lot of events,” senior Olga Jara said.
We need more students to step up and create our own school spirit, like the Jungle.
A sort of disconnect between the school and its students and peers can be constructed and can be a social detriment on our campus.
Being a part of Granada’s student body, we should provide that additional effort into taking pride into our school, whether that is through school and ASB-sponsored events or student-created theme days.
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