Spirit Week is a biannual tradition at Atherton High School, leading up to the Homecoming football and basketball game of their respective seasons. Each year during Spirit Week, the student body attempts to dress in a theme each day. The most recent Spirit Week took place September 15-19 and had the following themes:
9/15 Monday = Decades 2000s day
9/16 Tuesday = White lie (Wear a white T with a lie written in marker)
9/17 Wednesday = WE WEAR PINK–Come Sit WITH Us OR Dynamic Duo!
9/18 Thursday = Country – or – Country Club
9/19 Friday = Class Colors (Freshman-white, Sophomore-gold, Juniors-Maroon, Seniors-Black)
Senior and junior class officers decide the themes which are looked over by staff members at Atherton. Stephany Belcher, a student counselor at Atherton, is a part of the approval process for spirit week themes. Belcher takes the themes that the student body chooses and insures they are ready for the next step in the process.
“It [the themes] has to be something that everyone who may want to participate can do and doesn’t cost any money,” said Belcher.
If the themes the student body have picked out are approved, then the next part of the process begins. “Whatever the student government decides gets sent to the racial equity committee, which has the final say,” said Belcher who acts as a middleman between the student government and Atherton’s Racial Equity Committee.
The president of the Senior class Wesley Buchanan (12) offered insight to the decision making process of spirit week from a student perspective.
“I think something students don’t take into account about Atherton spirit week is the committees that everything we do [for spirit week] has to be approved . Because we submit spirit week themes to these committees weeks in advance and they deliberate on whether or not we are allowed to do these things, sometimes they decline or change their mind over time, forcing us to make new ideas,” said Buchanan.
“Spirit week themes really allow students to express themselves with school spirit, as well as cheer on the Atherton football team and spread community throughout the school,” said Buchanan.
Atherton’s first spirit week went well, and served as an exemplary reflection of the hard work both students and staff put into spirit week.
