The petition was created by a group of senior girls with the goal of reinstating the Pep Rally.
Casey Manzella
Editor-in-Chief
The Pep Rally has long been a tradition of NCHS, including its dance competition between the sports teams and the announcement of the Homecoming Court; however, according to administrators, in the past years students have used the Pep Rally as an opportunity to come to school inebriated. For this reason and several others, the administration cancelled the Pep Rally this year, causing mixed reactions. “This was not a decision that was made lightly,” Acting Principal Dr. Veronica LeDuc said. “We struggled with this for a long time. We discussed this with the people who are responsible for putting it together and supervising it.”
Drinking was not the only reason behind the decision to cancel the Pep Rally. “Given that we take instructional time for the Pep Rally, we felt that it was really important for us to have a positive, valuable reason to do that,” Dr. LeDuc said. “Both the safety issue, with the behaviors of some of the kids related to the condition that they’re in by the time the Pep Rally rolls around, and the lack of self-monitoring in their dance performances really provided concern for the administration.”
The “condition” Dr. LeDuc refers to is the drunken state of an estimated 5-10% of the student body, according to Athletic Director Jay Egan, who was also involved in making the decision to cancel the Pep Rally. “The decision to not have the Pep Rally was based on many years of negative behavior associated with the activities of the Pep Rally,” Mr. Egan said. “In each of the last five years we’ve had at least one student that has been transported to the hospital as the result of consuming too much alcohol.”
Last year’s seniors from the varsity football team participated in the dance competition.
Another part of the Pep Rally the administration views as a negative consequence is the nature of the sports teams’ dance competition. “Last year each team created and performed a dance,” Dr. LeDuc said. “I use the term ‘dance’ loosely. Some of those dances were offensive last year. Offensive enough
that people raised concerns — adults and young people — about the offensiveness and vulgarity.”
As part of the competition, teachers are asked to judge the dances; however, last year, the dances caused the teachers discomfort. “Last year, we had four teachers as judges and after the first dance they refused to participate as judges because of the nature of the activities going on,” Mr. Egan said. “It’s embarrassing for adults to be in an environment like that. They’re embarrassed for the students, for the types of things they’re doing in front of the whole school.”
Last year the boys and girls cross country teams combined their teams’ dances.
While the administration felt the dances were a negative part of the Pep Rally, some students felt otherwise. “Personally, my favorite part about the Pep Rally was always watching the fall sports teams do their dances,” senior Morgan Sturm said. “They were always hilarious, and having coaches and teachers there to watch and judge made it all the better.”
Some students’ opinions further differ from the administration’s on the overarching topic of cancelling the Pep Rally. “It’s so sad,” senior Sami Marcus said. “It’s a tradition and of course it would happen to the class of 2015.”
Like Sami, many seniors were especially disappointed that the Pep Rally was cancelled their senior year. “I was very disappointed because as underclassmen my grade had always admired each class of seniors above us and their spirit at the Pep Rallies,” Morgan said. “We’ve been watching and admiring for years and this was our year to show our spirit and express our love for the school and each other at the Pep Rally. Now we can no longer do that.”
Students were also upset because they felt the administration was punishing the many for the actions of the few by canceling the Pep Rally. “I think the most upsetting part is that a select number of people have given the tradition an image that it was never intended to have,” Morgan said. “It’s sad that we all have to be punished for the actions of those individuals.”
The administration views canceling the Pep Rally differently. “Even if it’s a small number of kids engaging in inappropriate behavior, in my mind it’s a safety issue that’s too grave to put a single student in,” Dr. LeDuc said. “I don’t think canceling the Pep Rally is a punishment because we have a lot of traditions that are going to still take place during Spirit Week and Homecoming.”
One such tradition is the Homecoming Dance, which takes place Saturday night after the football game. “We’ve gone from having 1,100 students to barely having enough students to have a dance,” Mr. Egan said. “That is the most traditional activity that is associated with homecoming at New Canaan High School. If we’re so concerned about school spirit, and we’re so concerned about preserving traditions, there should be 1,100 kids in the gym on Saturday night.”
This year’s seniors celebrate last year’s Pep Rally, which they will no longer be able to do this year.
Such differences in viewpoints and the students’ disappointment led some students to create a petition to have the Pep Rally reinstated. “Since news first got out about there not being a Pep Rally everyone has wanted to do something about it,” Morgan said. “Finally, we came together as a class and decided we needed to at least attempt to find our voice.”
The petition was created on September 15 by senior Lauren Joneja on ipetitions.com and has since gathered over 600 signatures. “Even though I was the one who physically created the petition it was definitely a group idea,” Lauren said. “We all agreed that we had to take a stand and an online petition was one of the most feasible ways to get the whole school involved if they wanted to be.”
The main goals of the petition are to reinstate the Pep Rally and to reinvent its image. “We are trying to approach this as an opportunity, not a problem,” Lauren said. “The senior class would like to take this opportunity to show that the Pep Rally can be a fun, positive, and healthy event and change the image that it has been known to have for the past couple years.”
Since viewing the petition, the administration has had mixed reactions, specifically to claims such as signees’ assertion that they will accept “the responsibility to abstain from alcohol, drugs and any other illegal substance that would hold the school accountable.” “The case is very well made in the petition, but it’s also conditional,” Dr. LeDuc said. “I know that sometimes when someone signs something and then the situation presents itself the choice is changed. But, beyond that, there are some 500 people not accounted for among the signees. When a group is large, a number of people can’t guarantee the behavior of everyone.”
Also hesitating to believe the claims in the petition, Mr. Egan notes students’ failure to stop their peers’ inappropriate behavior at the past Pep Rallies. “The majority of the high school stood by and did nothing as far as putting any pressure on their peers with respect to their behavior,” he said. “As a result, it became acceptable and okay for us to have behavior none of us are proud of going on during the Pep Rally.”
Although the administration, Mr. Egan and Ms. Priscilla Schulz, the advisor to Student Coalition, have officially decided that there will be no Pep Rally this year, there is a chance that it will be held again sometime in the future. “If the students truly believe that they can promote a safe environment for the Pep Rally they could promote a very safe environment during Spirit Week, and perhaps things could be reconsidered for next year’s class,” Dr. LeDuc said. “When you’re working with young people you always have to keep an open mind. One of the things in education that we try never to do is say never.”
Mr. Egan feels similarly. “I think at any point in the future, any student ideas about how to bring this back are worth discussion and worth exploring,” he said.
While the petition did not change the administration’s mind, it was not ignored. “What I hope people will understand is that just because we disagree doesn’t mean we don’t value their point of view,” Dr. LeDuc said. “But, sometimes, even though you value someone’s point of view you still have to keep with the decisions that you’ve made. It doesn’t devalue their thought process or their point of view at all; it just means that when you weigh it, it doesn’t take you to a place where you’re able to change your decision.”
