Pep rally was right around the corner. On March 27th the spring pep rally was to take place and ASB as well as Student Council were working hard to get everything done. Even though pep rally has been canceled due to quarantine, one serious question on people’s minds was: are you going to participate? 

Three people interviewed simply answered “No.” This is a common occurrence during spirit week as a lack of participation is repeated every year. 

The reason? According to Melinda Perez, she doesn’t participate because she has no clue what to wear. “I don’t really have time to gather items to dress up with and I don’t usually have things I could use for spirit week.” Sometimes, spirit week just isn’t appealing as is the case with Alicia Miguel.

 “I don’t usually participate in spirit week just because it’s not my personality.”

Another comment a student made is that there is a lack of student involvement when it comes to planning the pep rally. Milo Jones, a senior, wishes that there would be a way to “ask the student body what they want.” 

The school’s ASB has an instagram, @nohoasb. Although Jones claims to have never seen any ideas on how to involve the student body, Anahi Gonzalez, ASB president and PR chair, says that “there [are] ways they can reach out to us and let us know what they want.” 

If students have ideas, ASB might be able to implement them.

 “I’m all for it” Anahi says when it comes to listening to others ideas. 

Overall, Jones thinks pep rally is “boring, disappointing, unorganized, and whack.” 

Spirit committee chair Sabrina Ruvalcaba is affected by these comments and hopes students would be more understanding of the hard work put into pep rallies. “On the outside, it may seem really simple to plan but in reality it’s a lot of hard work. It’s a lot of little details leading up to the event. So when people bash on it it’s really frustrating on our part because we’re just trying for everyone to have a good time.”

There have been a few suggestions on how to have students actively participate in spirit week. Melinda recommends to “have teachers offer extra credit for dressing up for spirit week.”

Maybe if teachers would help influence the students to participate, there would be more involvement in spirit week and pep rally. Teachers haven’t always been on the side of the students when it comes to these events. Some worry about student’s missing class during events.

Anahi says “Students are missing class for good reasons, to actually help the school.” 

Overall, students and teachers alike should keep an open mind when it comes to pep rally and spirit week. The students in ASB and Student Council work very hard to give North Hollywood High School a day to remember. Furthermore, you can contact ASB by DMing them at @nohoasb or applying to join them during the spring.

As Anahi said “If you want to see something happen, then you should make it happen.”