The Covid-19 pandemic drastically changed the quality and amount of school spirit. Before COVID, school spirit was generally a thing that was participated in, but after COVID, there was a drastic drop in participation, especially during spirit weeks. Before COVID, most people would wear Bills attire on Bills day or maroon and white on spirit days. Since the pandemic and lockdown there has been less and less participation in spirit weeks. I remember last year that the people participating were in the minority. Nobody wore school colors on designated days except for student council representatives. 

Perhaps the cause of this is the lack of want to be at school in the first place. Ever since being in lockdown and doing school online, people started disliking in person school a lot more. Doing your work at home on your own time was a lot more relaxing and frankly more fun than being in person and having to sit through 40 minutes of class. Even though people weren’t able to see their friends in school anymore, many still were upset when having to go back. 

Due to this recent general dislike of being in school, people are less inclined to show their school spirit. Why would someone want to show they like something when they don’t? Participation in school spirit weeks is an almost direct way of saying you are proud of your school and enjoy being there, and unfortunately this just isn’t true for some people. There will always be people who don’t like school, but after lockdown that number of people has just continued to increase. 

No matter the encouragement I saw last year from both student representatives and teachers, people were never as excited or willing to participate as they had in the past. With days like pajama day, beach day, and other themes like that, we see more participation; but when it comes to things like wearing school colors, or sports team merchandise, not many people partake in that. Before COVID I remember almost everyone participating, especially on sports days, but after we were back in person nobody cared to dress up for these days, including myself. 

“I feel that school spirit was more pronounced before COVID, because no one did it during zoom because we were in our houses,” said Jane Hereth, when being asked about her opinion on the evolution of school spirit pre and post COVID. 

“COVID was a tough time for everyone. It seems like things are really getting back to normal. For so long, things felt gloomy and sad. I hope that the silliness of spirit week continues to lighten that” offered Mr. Norvilitis. 

Even though there was a noticeable drop in the participation of school spirit, over the two years since lockdown, people have been slowly but surely partaking in school spirit again. Hopefully this week will bring a return to the spirit of years gone by.