Pep rallies are a long time tradition in high schools across the country. The purpose of a pep rally is to boost morale and school spirit, particularly before big games. At SHS, the fall pep rally has typically been the day before Thanksgiving break and has been a fun-filled day of games, activities, and cheering to promote Scituate pride. Traditionally, seniors are dressed head to toe in black, juniors in white, and underclassmen in schools colors. In the past, the day was run by Student Council and the high school administration.

This year, SHS Assistant Principals Bill Luette and Lisa Maguire were looking to make some modifications to the pep rally in order to increase attendance, eliminate the intimidation factor between grades, and generally promote a positive experience for all students. They also wanted to incorporate the core values of the school through activities focused on SAIL (serve, achieve, invest, and learn). Luette described his intentions as a way to “recognize and include more people.¨ He did not want to completely eliminate all division between classes, but his ultimate goal was to limit the competition between the different grades and make the pep rally more about school unity.

Student Council hoped to emulate previous years’ pep rallies by maintaining some of the SHS traditions. They were not enthusiastic about limiting the competitive aspect of the activities and incorporating SAIL into the pep rally.

In September, different representatives from each graduating class and the president of the Student Council, Corey Kelleher, were present during a meeting about making changes to the pep rally. Luette and Maguire presented their ideas and suggested different activities for the day. After the meeting, Student Council members disagreed about how the pep rally would be conducted, and they ultimately backed out of planning the event. Senior Class President Natalie Scott said the administration “listened to their ideas, and it was a conversation and not so much an argument.” There was a conflict of ideas, and Student Council’s ultimate decision was to leave the responsibility up to another group.

As of right now, details about the schedule for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving are still up in the air. However, students have been assured that some sort of school-spirited event will occur.