Homecoming at Park is right around the corner, and with that comes the events of spirit week. Each day of spirit week has a different dress code that students are encouraged to wear to school, and on most nights there are different activities for the students to take part in. 

Each year, these events become of less and less importance to the student body. It is noticeable in a variety of different ways. For one, the dress codes are worn by less people each year, and there are noticeably less attendees at each event. Adding onto that, engagement and excitement at school events such as pep fests, sporting events, plays and other events is decreasing. Students do not have the school spirit at Park that other schools have from their student body. 

This has been a noticeable change in the past couple of years at Park. People simply do not care about Park, and do not support different events that the student body takes part in. This is also causing other issues within the student body. 

People participating in sports, music, theater and other extracurriculars do not feel the support of their classmates, and it gives them less incentive to put in effort in what they do. This not only decreases the quality of the schools extracurricular programs, but also takes away opportunities from the individuals who are in these programs and do care. 

This issue can also be seen affecting people on a daily basis in school. People not caring about Park gives them less of a reason to build relationships with others. This leads to many small cliques at school, and people never giving themselves a chance to meet new people and talk to others. This really changes the dynamic of a school and has a large impact on each student as individuals. Building relationships is important, and not practicing that skill will hurt people going into adulthood. 

The classroom is hurt by this issue as well. If people don’t build relationships with others in school, they are less likely to speak up in the classroom as they do not feel comfortable with others around them. This really hurts the class dynamic in a lot of classes, particularly lower level classes. 

This issue continues to get worse at Park, and there doesn’t seem to be any concern for this on a staff level, and certainly no concern at the student level. As each senior class leaves, even more school spirit leaves. What will Park look like a year from now if it just continues to get worse? There isn’t an apparent solution, but the problem is definitely there and the school spirit is not. Park needs to change its activities and events and the way they are structured so that people gain interest in them. Park needs to gain the interest of it’s student body again so that people take pride in their community.