Cheers erupted as Seniors Sarah Tomason and Jacob Tran riled up the crowd with a spirit check during the Fall Assembly on Sept. 18. Two days later, ASBL erroneously announced that the seniors had won the sprit week competition. In actuality, the sophomore class had risen to the top at the last minute, beating the senior class by two points.
“We decided to do what we thought would be best for the whole school, but we now realize that what we did was wrong,” ASBL Vice President Senior Sandra Ngo said. “In retrospect, we had no right to do what we did and we had very poor judgment.”
ASBL revealed the truth via Facebook on Sept. 26, and formally apologized for changing the scores and misleading the student body. Their post received mixed reactions. Responses ranged from those that expressed clear disapproval to those of disappointment to those of plain confusion.
“It was kind of disappointing to know that seniors lost spirit week, but I feel like ASBL should’ve been more responsible about the scores.” Senior Ryan Lau said. “Even though they show that we lost, it would have been better to just say the real winner in the first place because not doing so brings up the hype for those who thought that they won, which will end in disappointment.”
In regards to the Sophomores, some were apathetic about the victory.
“Knowing that we won was definitely exciting, but it shouldn’t be about winning; it should be about having spirit in general,” Sophomore Desiree Caldera said. “If ASBL continues to give it to the seniors, I personally wouldn’t mind. I mean, it is their year.”
On the contrary, others feel that what ASBL had done was unfathomable, and have doubts about being represented by it.
“I’m not sure if I would trust ASBL to represent our class in the future,” Sophomore Vivian Do said. “I know everyone makes mistakes and hopefully they learn from them, but they should’ve just kept it real with everyone else.”
Regardless, the year’s first spirit week encouraged students to show their spirit, and #doitforthespirit.
“Everyone should be proud of how spirited they were because they’ve come a long way,” Ngo said. “I’m very sorry if we hurt anybody and lost their trust. However, I hope people can understand that even we make mistakes too.”
For the time being, ASBL Advisor Mr. Michael Kidd has suspended the assemblies committee from planning future spirit weeks.