We’re corralled into the gym like cattle; I might as well say moo. Teachers block all exits as if we’re going to make a break for it, maybe do something that’s worth our time.

My friends and I sulkily climb the steps to the bleachers. Soon into the pep rally we’re told to “stand up, stand up!” by a teacher.

It’s sad when you’re forced to have school spirit. Wouldn’t the faculty rather have students there that actually cared, rather than the ones that mock everything that is happening?

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Both Saginaw and Boswell High School allow students who do not want to attend the pep rally to go to the cafeteria, yet at Chisholm Trail we are forced. Why? Because administration does not believe we can make our own decisions. We are 15-17 years old, yet we are unable to decide if we want to attend an event.

Forcing us to attend the pep rallies and making us parade around the school only makes us hate them more. When I attended Boswell I looked forward to pep rallies because I could sit with my friends in the cafeteria, and have fun rather than going to the Pioneer Stadium cheering for a sport I have no interest in.

At Chisholm, even the performers recognized the lack of spirit.

A performer in the pep rallies said  “When I’m out on the stage performing and I look up at my side I can count 5-10 people just sitting there, like they don’t care.”

Which is exactly the case. Students that are forced to attend are not going to enjoy seeing the same thing over and over again.

In order to make it more enjoyable, students said it should be more interactive.

Junior Alexander Tong believed that contests between teachers and students would make the pep rallies more enjoyable.

Tong said “Take a teacher and a student and take a wheelchair. The student has to spin the teacher in the wheelchair and the last one to get dizzy wins.”

Principal Mike Schwei is an advocate for mandatory pep rallies.

Schwei said, “I think there is a responsibility on the part of being a Ranger, being a Rough Rider, being a Pioneer that people ought to honor their school, respect their school, have an allegiance to their school, have the back of the school.”

“It’s not a lot to ask for thirty minutes of [students’] time every couple of weeks.” Schwei said.

Schwei compared pep rallies to other events in students’ lives.

“I think it’s just like in a family, the family is all going on a vacation, but one of the children [in] the family doesn’t want to go, they go anyway. Because there is something to be said for time within a family where everybody participates together, whether everyone is interested or not. And while it is a larger scale, we are still a family here.”

Mandatory pep rallies imply that we as young adults cannot make decisions on what we want to do. Since we are considered a family, complaints should be listened to and dealt with instead of ignored.