Yearly, Seminole’s Leadership makes attempts to raise the morale of our students for sports or other fundraisers. Of course, as angsty high schoolers we refuse to let these pep rallies have any meaningful effect on us, lest we appear “uncool,” and we certainly don’t want that to happen.

But perhaps it is not our crippling reluctance to display enthusiastic responses that hinders the efficiency of the pep rallies. It is the faults inherent in the pep rallies themselves that cause the failure to yield any response.

An anonymous senior said, “The pep rallies have been the same since I was a freshman. It would be cool to see them do something different.”

The first sign of a pep rally across campus is the irritatingly loud music. The music has played so loudly in the past that the speakers began to suffer the effects of distortion, so much so that they may be damaged irreparably. Some students even find it difficult to have basic conversations as a result of the noise.

An anonymous sophomore said, “I can hardly hear my friends talk at lunch. I used to sit near the speakers but my ears started hurting.”

Maybe the volume of the music would be forgivable if the songs played were songs that the majority of students would enjoy. Perhaps some songs are good, but the Barbie theme song is a little ridiculous when it’s played for high school students. The decision to play alternative Christmas songs instead of traditional ones was probably not the best choice either. Familiar Christmas music would be generally better accepted by the lunch-eating population.

After we hear the grating music, usually there are some “games.” These are done with the intention of garnering crowd participation. Since the games have always been the same each year, these are met with apathy by the students who are aware of the monotony. If a new form of crowd participation were created, one in which more participants are permitted, perhaps the crowd’s energy could be harnessed.

There are some crucial changes that need to be made for pep rallies to achieve their goal of exciting the student body during lunch. Until then, they will remain ineffective and receive little positive response.