In the week of Aug. 30, a senior at McIntosh named Carmella Niedzwiecki started a petition on Change.org titled “Bring Back the Pep Rally Before the Tradition Disappears.” As of September 22, there are 137 signatures on this petition.
Niedzwiecki says she made this petition because the Pep Rally (usually during homecoming week) “it’s just something that we all look forward to every year, and especially as upperclassmen because it’s the most fun for us.”
The Pep rally is also a unification of the student body, and boosts school spirit. “[The Pep Rally] really just unifies the student body as a whole and it really just gets everyone in like the school spirit.” says Niedzwiecki.
For the last two years, McIntosh has not held its annual Pep Rally due to the mitigating circumstances of COVID-19. The event, which typically involves almost all of the students at McIntosh cheering in the indoor gym, would not have been safe to do during a global pandemic.
“But also just with corona being a thing, COVID I mean, theoretically I feel like if someone didn’t want to go for that reason safety wise I feel like they should be allowed not to do that, like something like not, though,” says Niedwiecki. “If we were to do it outside and there’s more space to actually like space students out, and if they stick with their grades like pep rallies like normally are. Then all those kids are already normally together in classes anyway, and honestly, if students want they can still wear a mask, even though it’s outside,” she adds. Changing some of the aspects of the Pep Rally to allow students the choice to assess risk themselves, and moving the event outdoors to lower that risk, may be necessary to get the Pep Rally reinstated.
However, the outlook of a Pep Rally isn’t certain to be positive, Niedzwiecki said. “I have a feeling, no matter what I say, they’ll probably lean towards [no Pep Rally], but I already have like a whole bunch of people that would like to volunteer to plan it, if they needed to. And then, even like the student body government. I’ve talked to one of the people who is a part of that and they were saying that they would totally be willing to possibly help plan that as well. Or at least discuss it,” she says.
This is a big reason why Niedzwiecki is trying to gain many student signatures on her petition, and to ‘spread the word’. “And, I’m just like getting everyone to post it. Like, if they can so more and more people will sign it, because I’m hoping to get at least half the student body population for it to actually be an effective petition for my argument to the principal about it.” Niedzwiecki says, meaning it might sway the principal to consider bringing back the Pep Rally.
“So I kind of was nervous I was gonna get in trouble for kind of like posting…But then, also, I knew that if I went and tried fighting for getting pep rallies back, the voice of one person isn’t necessarily very impactful. If I went to the administration about it, they could just be like, oh, well, no one else has come to us about this so why would we fight, or like work on that,” she continues, “But if I get a lot of people to like kind of sign the petition and just kind of back me up on the fact that they also want the pep rally and that’s not just like a few people that like actually want this and have wanted this, then like I feel like it just makes the argument stronger for why we should bring it back.”
To sell her argument for the principal, Mrs. Walls, Niedzwiecki says “I plan on using examples of other schools that have taken the time to have a pep rally regardless of their being corona.” and “ I would bring the petition as well to make sure that Mrs. Walls is aware that it is something we want.” She also says, “My final argument… would be that the student body is willing to plan it all.”
“It’s just something that I really want to fight for and a lot of other people really want to fight for,” says Niedzwiecki.