THE TROUBLE
PALY’S CONTROVERSIAL PAST WITH SCHOOL SPIRIT
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FTER 12 YEARS of school, senior year marks the end of students’ first chapter in life. At Palo Alto High School, this means a year filled with classic traditions: camouflaged clothing, Spirit Week victories, future planning and heartfelt goodbyes. With Paly’s history spanning just over a hundred years, countless traditions have come and gone while others are still celebrated today. These traditions, however, have not existed without controversy and debate, and many argue they should be scrapped entirely. Camouflage controversy On the first day of school, the senior tradition of wearing camouflage-patterned clothing makes its annual debut. In a sea of freshmen, sophomores and juniors, seniors emerge dressed in identical camouflage pants, a symbol of their final year of high school. According to math teacher and Paly alumnus Arne Lim, camouflage was a Spirit
Week theme one year for the senior class. tradition, especially since I’m the Senior Since then, seniors have continued wearing Class President.” camouflage, expanding the tradition out of Rivera says it is up to each individual Spirit Week and into other significant dates to decide whether they want to wear camin the school year, such as the first and last ouflage, and day of school, as she respects inwell as some foot- I’m not a particular fan of it dividuals who ball games. choose not to This tradi- [camouflage] because I think follow that tration, however, dition. it’s representative of war has become a reThe final cent topic of de- and guns. day of Spirit — FRIDA RIVERA, senior class president bate due to the Week, where pattern’s original students are function as war attire. Senior Class Pres- encouraged to dress in green in white to ident Frida Rivera says she felt conflicted show school spirit, has created mixed opinover participating in the long-standing tra- ions with many seniors opting to wear camdition, but ultimately decided to wear cam- ouflage instead. ouflage on the first day of school. “I see militarism,” Hall says. “I see “I’m not a particular fan of it [camou- camouflage. But Paly’s colors are not brown, flage] because I think it’s representative of green, olive and whatever the [camo] colwar and guns,” Rivera says. “But I felt like I ors are. Paly’s colors are green and white. I wasn’t in a position where I should be pre- would like to see all four classes dress up in venting other people from continuing this green and white.”
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Senior Traditions in Paly History Collected from the Paly yearbook “Madrono” and “The Campanile” archives
1927
In the 1920’s and 30’s, traditions included a Junior-Senior Dance, a theater production featuring a cast of seniors, Senior Week, the Senior Picnic, and a program with senior stunts as well as a commencement dance.
40 OCTOBER 2019
1989 Float building and traditional Paly Spirit Week themes, like seniors dressing up as seniors citizens, hold strong in the 1980s.