A poll was recently conducted by Mr. Sidwell’s sixth period Journalism class to find out how students at Freedom feel about school spirit on campus. A questionnaire was distributed to four English classes during sixth period.

According to that survey, 72% of respondents believed that Freedom is lacking on school spirit! It is jaw-dropping that almost 3/4 of our school believes we lack spirit here on campus. So what is the cause of Freedom’s less-than-stellar school spirit?

Many of the students surveyed agreed that poor performance of our sports teams is the primary reason we lack the energy. Others believe it is Freedom’s poor maintenance of school facilities.

It is sad to say I have to agree with these remarks. Freedom absolutely lacks the energy that can be found at most other schools. You can see it at sports games, pep rallies, and even in the hallways in between classes. Students have been caught defacing the walls of Freedom with all forms of graffiti in the hallways and bathrooms, and the student sections have been slowly diminishing at home sporting events.

Additionally, students are unhappy with sprit week activities and pep rally events.  Although football games are by far the highest attended of the home sporting events, it is still very poor.

So what can we do to whip up our spirit? A few buddies and I have taken it upon ourselves to try and increase student section population at home games. We call ourselves the “PATRIOT PACK”. In our efforts we hope to not only increase student population at games but also participation. Basically, we attend home games and call out the star player on the opposing team in hopes of throwing off their games to grant our Freedom patriots a home field advantage.

Next is pep rallies. Being a member of the Student Government Association, seeing the lack of enthusiasm from the crowd is pretty cringe-worthy. Although our budget is limited, I hope that some of my fellow students would be willing pitch ideas for future pep rally events. Hopefully this will increase student interaction at pep rallies to make them that much more entertaining. That goes double for spirit week.

If we can increase student (and teacher) participation at school events, we can raise more money that the school can use to meet our request to better our campus. It is all on the students and faculty to get out there and be the change they want to see at our school.