Whether it be dress-up days or student section themes for home games, people will always participate and express their panther pride. In recent times, however, the number of students dressing up is at an all-time low.
There are a couple of reasons why students might be disinterested in the dress-up days for school, such as the day’s themes themselves.
“[The dress-up days] are a little bit worse than the last dress-up days we’ve had,” freshman Daniel Easum said. “They were a bit out of place; they shouldn’t have put Adam Sandler day on the coldest week of the year.”
While the themes might not be perfect, another reason why student participation is lacking could be that some students don’t even know what the themes are.
“Personally for me, I don’t really usually know the student section theme,” junior Kate Williams said. “If I do, it’s because someone posts on their Facebook or Instagram page that says, for having a game, this is the theme. But other than that I don’t really hear anything about it.”
With varying opinions, a few students believe that posting the themes sooner will help get more contributions to school events.
“Maybe reposting [the themes] early on, on Instagram or whatever,” senior Salem Brown said. “Letting people know about them, and just having simpler themes.”
Other students felt that the themes were simple and fun; they think while maybe some student sections might be hard to follow, most are attainable.
“I think they’re really fun,” sophomore Anika Anderson said. “I didn’t really know how to do Adam Sandler Day. But for the other ones, I think they were really fun…but nobody really participated in it, and it was kind of sad.”
While it seems that all hope is lost for student contribution to the school, some students differ in opinion. They believe that the dress-up days are ideal and easy to partake in.
“I honestly think it’s mostly like the themes,” senior Nayeli Esparza said. “Like people aren’t sure how to dress for certain themes…but honestly like I’ve dressed up a lot more this year than I have in years past…and the themes have been getting better and better.”
While this issue is dependent on the students themselves, there are a couple of ways that involvement could be boosted. One possible solution is hosting an assembly teaching student cheers.
“I think the ones who definitely would participate would go all in and kind of make-up for those who don’t want to,” senior Nayeli Esparza said. “But yeah, I think that would be like a great thing to learn because I know some of the cheerleaders are kind of quiet.”
Despite the consensus among the students regarding the lack of participation, students’ opinions on how to get more involvement provide a ray of hope for student’s involvement. Eventually, they will determine whether PHS spirit increases or fades away.
