The Park just hosted their three annual fall pep rallies in each school. All three student Congress organizations worked hard to plan everything down to the minute, only to get their hard work stomped on by part of the student body. Rather than going to pep rallies, students get passes to excuse themselves from the rest of the day before the end of the day to avoid pep rally attendance. In particular, Canton’s pep rally had students that caused the attendance office to discontinue writing off-campus passes because so many students were trying to get called out at one time.

The epidemic has not only happened this year, but it has been an ongoing phenomenon. Canton 2015 graduate Jack Watson said, “I would always tell my dad to call the attendance office the day before pep rallies because the phone lines were always busy the day of.” The Student Congress organization puts in hours of work for people to not acknowledge any of it, but they are the first ones to want to attend a homecoming dance also put together by congress. The pep rally is the prelude to the rest of the homecoming weekend but there is minimal participation.

Canton Student Congress President Avery Ralston, senior, is disappointed with the decline in student attendance at pep rallies. “More than anything it’s disappointing. We attend multiple leadership conferences every year with other schools and hear about the great turnout they have, and it’s unfortunate that our own students don’t have that same school spirit,” said Ralston.

School spirit in students is deteriorating little by little. Canton senior Markus Sanders said, “School spirit, and people being decked out in their school colors, is one thing that keeps school fun and exciting for me. No matter what school a person attends, rival or not, seeing somebody repping their school makes me happy.”