Homecoming Week Competitiveness Creates Tension, Division

Homecoming week began with the promise of friendly competition and shows of school spirit. It ended after a series of Social media posts, vandalism, and accusations that caused tensions and division among the students across grade levels, leading some students to ask: when does competition and rivalry become unfriendly?  

“A Small Dis”

Conflict began when posts on social media from multiple people questioned who the “real” competitors were between the grade levels. One notable post declared “the only competition is just the sophomores and juniors.”

The poster responsible stated that their purpose was not to cause harm but to “recruit other people for dance fever.”

Nevertheless,  according to junior class president, Brianne Lagazo, the controversy began to “take away the purpose of homecoming which was to be fun and make it enjoyable for our class and officers.” It created a “toxic atmosphere” all homecoming week, she added.

After going viral among the students, one of the posts appeared in the real world when seniors printed it out and gave copies to the judges and the audience, and dramatically ripped up a copy during the event. Since the controversy, students have debated whether or not this was the correct way the seniors could have handled the situation. 

Senior Ofa Sulunga didn’t think it was out of line as “it was just a small dis, nothing too harsh” and that “they weren’t spouting hateful comments towards whoever made the post or anything.”

Junior Jenna Basto thinks that what the seniors have done “should have been more optimistic.” Yet, she understands where the seniors are coming from, considering “they were probably offended.” 

Sophomore vice president Grayson Guzman agrees. “I understand where they are coming from, but for sure could have been handled better.”

Freshmen president Seilala Samisoni states that the freshmen dance fever team  wasn’t affected by the negative posts. Instead, “we just thought about having fun.” To the freshman dancers, she claims, “it was not a competition.”

The Mystery of the Vandalized Poster

Social media posts were not the only cause of tension during homecoming. At some point during the week, an anonymous person or persons vandalized a banner hung up by the junior class. This resulted in more confusion and finger pointing.

Some have suspected that the vandal belongs to the senior class as they wrote “class of 2026” on the poster in addition to “really inappropriate and hostile messages,” as Ashlee Hufalar, sophomore secretary, describes. 

Lagazo states that although her class was calling the seniors out, she “cannot definitively say that it was someone from the senior class who did it.” The only thing she is sure about is that the incident “shows how much people refuse to take accountability for their actions.”

“I put a lot of effort into the decorations and for someone to vandalize it so easily,” Lagazo said in frustration. 

Candy? Anyone?

Several students also reported candy being thrown aggressively at students. Sophomore Ayden Elaydo states that one of the candies “hit one of our people holding posters.”

Hufalar was informed from a junior that seniors were “throwing jolly ranchers at the juniors.” ”It wasn’t necessarily good intentioned,” she said.

Although many people are always throwing candy during the performances, Elaydo believes that the seniors did mean it and that they weren’t joking around. “By the look of their faces” he states, “I know they meant it.”

Same Song, Different Grade

Raising tensions even higher, juniors at some point began blaming the sophomores (and vice versa) for copying the songs they were going to dance to during dance fever.

“People said we copied them,” Elaydo said, but “we had no idea what their song mashup was.”

Because of this, juniors suggested that the sophomores change their songs but Elaydo stated that it was too late.  “We had a due date for the songs,” he said. 

Past Dance Fevers

Micah Kawaguchi-Ailetcher, a  drawing and painting teacher, graduated in the class of 2002. She states that in her year, there were always feelings of competition during Dance Fever. They would call it “Coed Cheerleading.”

She explains that this was important as classes built a sense of “class comradery through dissing the other classes,” she added. However, she thinks new technology and access to printers has probably worsened the sense of competition.

Lagazo states that “it only takes one person to see that post and screenshot it. Next thing you know, one-hundred people are talking about it on campus.”

“...a friendly competition"

People really did try to make homecoming "a friendly competition,” claims senior Kelani Lisseth Gonzalez Gonzalez. Other students did bad things, "so it made us students look really bad,” she added. 

Lagazo sums it up, stating that even though it happened, the only thing we can take from this is “learn from it, move forward.”