Traditionally, incoming freshmen look forward to participating in high school events like football games and homecoming. Seniors await prom and their graduation ceremony to cap off their high school career. Rallies, dances, football games and other events are often seen as integral to school spirit. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has made celebrating school spirit significantly harder.
“There’s not a lot of people that attend [rallies] which does bring spirit down,” said sophomore dance team member Angeles Casillas. “People who [are] performing … expect a crowd to cheer for them but the people that are there … don’t cheer that much, so it’s kind of upsetting.”
Freshmen and sophomores have had an especially untraditional high school experience. Both groups are experiencing their first full year on campus this year, which may explain their lack of school spirit.
“[The underclassmen] have way less spirit points than the juniors and seniors,” said sophomore class Treasurer Ashley Roselynn Vincent. “But that’s definitely because the juniors and seniors have been on campus before and they’ve experienced … everything we’re trying to have all students experience, [without] masks.”
Because juniors and seniors spent time on campus prior to the pandemic, they are more familiar with Aragon’s traditions and events and thus have slightly different viewpoints from underclassmen.
“People are trying to figure out how to be spirited, especially [underclassmen] who are … new to it”
“We had a ‘secret spirit week’ … that was only for seniors,” said senior Tamilyn Chang. “There were a lot more people that I saw participating in it. So I think the main difference is that as people get closer to [their] senior year, they [start] participating [more].”
With the transition from online to in-person school, students have had trouble figuring out how to get involved with school traditions.
“I feel like people are trying to figure out how to be spirited, … especially sophomores and freshmen who are completely brand new to it,” said junior and Associated Student Body secretary Ava Yanez. “It’s very, very new, obviously, whereas … when I was a freshman, everybody knew what they were doing.”
Students in the ASB and the class council run fundraisers and represent the school, but one of their main responsibilities is to advertise and manage spirit events. The pandemic has presented many problems, so the ASB has had to be creative with new and modified events.
“[The pandemic has] made it difficult to hold a lot of events like rallies we used to do in the gym,” Yanez said. “Sometimes the energy does feel lost, and it’s definitely impacted a lot of other activities. We’ve had to create new ones like … the carnival last semester.”
ASB students are creating new events and modifying old traditions to adapt them to current COVID-19 guidelines. One of these new changes included turning Red and Black Fridays into Comfy and Cozy Fridays from Jan. 14 to Jan. 28.
“It’s a good way to have solidarity [with] people who aren’t at school,” Yanez said. “Even if people are at home, they can dress up if they want to. We’re all doing the same thing, so we can still be like a family.”
“[Spirit events] create a feeling [of]connection, a feeling of unity and … a feeling of belonging”
Similar to students in the class council and the ASB, dance team and Link Crew members are required to participate in school spirit events and help students become included.
The dance team is especially spirited. Casillas highlighted the team’s sense of unity as a large motivator for her joining.
“Probably the first time I saw [the] dance team was at a basketball game,” Casillas said. “I saw how they get on stage, and [how] they do this little chant before they go perform, which I thought was pretty cool.”
Aragon wellness counselor Jill Ma pointed out the benefits of spirit events.
“It creates a feeling [of] connection, a feeling of unity and … a feeling of belonging,” Ma said. “Big events and school spirit can also [create a] feeling of acceptance on campus.”
Even though the school and leadership students are taking many precautions to keep the student body both safe and spirited, the risk of COVID-19 is still present in every large gathering, with new cases in San Mateo County averaging at about 923 per day as of Feb. 4, according to The New York Times.
However, despite the risk as well as the disruptions caused by distance learning, Aragon students still manage to celebrate their school spirit.
