Before every first spirit week of the year, each grade level at BHS designs a class T-shirt, usually with a catchy slogan and a fun design. However, on the day of the first pep rally, many students wore their own clothes with their assigned color, and a number of seniors even wore shirts from past years’ graduating classes.
Senior year is the time when students tend to show the most school spirit, as it is their last year to make memories in the school. One of the senior shirt designers, Zoe Michaud, has noticed throughout the years that “people (in general) do not like [the shirt] slogans”. So, in order to create a shirt that she thought people were more likely to purchase for the pep rally, Michaud “decided to go with something pretty inclusive and generic to encompass the entirety of the grade”. The senior shirt’s slogan, ALWAY’2 A BULLD0G, incorporates the class’s year of graduation, 2020, into the words; this is a common theme used within the designs on the shirts.
Jamie Karr, a junior, feels that the class shirts are unnecessary. “It’s a lot of money. If they expect us to buy one every year, that’s just a lot of money I don’t have as a student.” The $10 price for the shirts adds up after buying one all four years of high school, which isn’t an easily affordable price for everyone. However, the money from the shirt sales goes directly back to the students. Taylor Suozzo, a member of the student council of the Class of 2021, states that “The money goes to senior week, our class gift, and prom”. Students who want to make a difference in the school community can purchase a shirt to make sure special events later on in the year are well-funded enough to be fun and exciting.
There seems to be a running pattern this year of the class shirts being less than satisfactory. Kyra Brown, a BHS sophomore, states that “It is not very soft; I wanted to use it as a new PJ shirt, but it isn’t that comfortable.” An uncomfortable wear is no fun for consumers. Although it is important to denote that the budgets for each class may only allow more economically friendly shirts, the comfort problem may turn more students away from the product in the future. Another sophomore, Tareq Ziada, states that he doesn’t feel like they “make a difference”. He seemingly feels that the shirts are not eye-catching enough to make the purchase ‘worth it’ for him.
Procuring an eye-catching design seemed to be of primary concern to the class of ’23. The brand new freshmen class brought with them a new idea for their spirit day shirts. These fresh designs don’t feature the iconic bulldog, or any kind of slogan. Rather, they sport the logo for the popular clothing brand, Patagonia, to make their design stand out from the other classes’ options. Instead of the brand’s name being under the colorful mountains, the simple words ‘class of ‘23’ fill in the space. This was seen as funny and unique to many older students; to many, it was a mystery how the freshmen came up with such an interesting design. When asked, Erika Adler informed that “Mr. Guerard just gave us ‘a lot of options for the shirt and we ended up choosing the Patagonia logo. I think it’s pretty cool.” Adler and many other students gave the Friday pep rally a fresh new spin by using a common interest to represent the class.
BHS students seem to be weary of the constant similarities between their school spirit shirts every year, but seeing the positive reaction to the design chosen by the class of 2023, we may begin to see more unique and exciting designs in the future.
