The spirit of Deer Park is unquestionable. Students love to support their school when they need it most and they aren’t afraid to show it. However, for the La Porte versus Deer Park spirit week, the students were uninformed of the spirit days that went on. Thinking it would be harmless, the Deer Park Cheerleaders took to Twitter to create their own form of a spirit week which involved: America Monday, Tourist Tuesday, Work Out Wednesday, Netflix Thursday, and Maroon Out Friday. Unfortunately, Deer Park made an official announcement on Tuesday of the official days: Tourist Thursday, Tie Dye Friday, and Maroon Out at the game. This caused confusion, frustration, and controversy within the student body as well as the school’s administration.
On Sunday, September 20th, the cheerleaders began to campaign for a spirit week which gained the attention of students as they retweeted the information about the “spirit week.” Eventually, the vast majority of the student population caught wind of it and began to prepare their outfits for the week to come. However, by Tuesday, September 22nd, Deer Park High School South Campus announced that Thursday and Friday would become the official spirit days for the school.
The decision, however, was not made to spite any student or to discourage their spirit. A major reason behind the decision was because through this method proper communication was made to both North and Wolters Campuses so that they may join in on the spirit and fun. Another reason for the communication idea is because sometimes spirit weeks can break the rules. “Some of those days require or allow students to be out of dress code, ” Principal Steve Corry said, “Anytime students are out of dress code that needs to come from the office.”
To clarify, a spirit week is not necessarily decided by one group or organization. Any group of people may decide to put a spirit week together without even going through the office. “There are no guidelines for a spirit week necessarily because we want ideas and we want kids to have fun and have spirit, but we have to have communication so we can have everyone on the same line,” Corry said.
Another perk with communication for a spirit week is because the teachers like to get involved too. “Sometimes we allow teachers to wear jeans during spirit week,” Corry said. “That has to come from the Superintendent.” Communication of a spirit week would allow the administration to have enough time to get jean days approved for teachers too.
Students are always allowed to organize spirit weeks and spirit days without necessarily running it by the administration. Students are encouraged to run it by administration to allow everyone to be on the same page, but if they want to have a spirit day or spirit week that would not disrupt the school rules then it is strongly encouraged. “I had a student come in to me and ask me if she would be allowed to do the spirit week for Tuesday and Wednesday,” Corry said. “I told her she could as long as she followed the dress code.”
There is no question that students were upset by the initial decision to name Thursday and Friday the official La Porte spirit days, but the decision was made for the convenience of the administration and communication between the schools. Students may hold and schedule spirit days as they please, but if they involve going around school rules then they must be brought to the Deer Park administration first. If it doesn’t involve breaking a school rule such as the dress code, students are more than welcome to have these events. After all, nobody should be forced to contain their school spirit.