Outrageously Awesome Allies

Hundred of students crowd the halls, filling the school with their own unique personalities, interests, and emotions. Even though there are all these different kinds of people, some students still feel alone without a friend to look out for them. SJHS hosted Be an Ally week to help change this.

Being an ally has several different meanings to different people. When asked about the topic one of the students, Kimbal Mcferson, believes that being an ally means, “helping those who need it and those who don’t.” He thinks we should be looking out for fellow peers in our school which seems to be a very common trend among the students. Annie Low has similar opinions saying that allies help out whenever they can.

Many hope to be able to have the friendship and school spirit continue beyond this week. Ms. Jensen, the teacher in charge of the student council, commented on the changes she’d already seen as a result of Be an Ally week. She said, “Only the second day, kids say they made new friends.” This week as already shown improvements in the overall positivity in the school. Mrs. Shepherd, the assistant principal, said that one of the outcomes she hopes to see as a result of the spirit week is to see nicer kids with fewer kids going home feeling sad.

There were many fun activities planned for the days throughout the week. There were dress-up challenges like wearing school spirit, dressing up as a Disney character, neon colors, etc. Many students like the dress-up challenges, Bennett Averett and Reese Barron’s favorite dress-up day was the sports team gear day. The week also ended with an assembly where guest Ben Kjar shared his story of being an ally and then the band Foreign Figures played some of their music. 

To conclude, Be an Ally week was an overall success pushing many students out of their comfort zones to go help other peers.  Abigayle Burns sums it up best saying that her favorite thing about the week was showing uniqueness among the students and similarity.