Where Did the ‘Pep’ in Our Step Go?

Every year at BHS, there are two pep rallies. At least that’s what people think – one in the fall, and one in the spring or winter. But plot twist! There was only one this year, and no more in the near future of this school year. You thought wrong. According to Mr. Jozokos, there is never a regular schedule, meaning there could be one or three in a year. However, he did admit that two is the norm. So what happened?

The common conclusion around school is that the “a-lil-extreme-but-kinda-NBD” behavior at the last pep rally led to the second one being cancelled. This is where it gets a little fuzzy. Because our conduct at the last pep rally, let’s say, was not the greatest, there is going to be changes made.

So what does that even mean? Mr. Jozokos said that our last pep rally got out of hand, and was crazier than previous ones. Crazy? Us? Court-rushing is denoted as both disorderly, and unsafe (risk of injury). Also, the usual chant of “go home freshman” was too intense at the last one, and was seen as a tad barbaric.

Interestingly, the chant is not a time honored tradition of BHS. Mr. Jozokos mentioned that the chant crept in 5 or 6 years ago, and got worse every year. We just happened to be the tipping point. So let’s just blame those students several years ago. @BHSclassof2014, you guys got our pep rally shut down!

Clarification though! There will be changes in the pep rally, but they should continue, and we will be tug-a-warring away next fall. Many students love pep rallies and spirit week, and Mr. Jozokos agreed that they were an important part of school culture, so no one is looking to get rid of them.

But there is no second pep rally this year. Sorry to break the news if you were holding out hope. The fuzzy part of this whole thing is that there were a whole lot of factors that led to no spring pep rally. Mr. Hagen went to student council telling them that something had to be changed for the next pep rally. Student council made a plan, which included the new rules. Mr. Hagen told student council that they had to get the word out about the rules, and then decided that there wouldn’t be enough time.

So it was kind of indirectly caused by student behavior last time, but there was also the timing issue. But to be clear, it was not student council’s fault, or Mr. Hagen’s. It really just kind of fizzled out. It stinks that the 2018 seniors only had one pep rally this year, but on the bright side, they are not cancelled forever.