There’s a longstanding tradition at Roosevelt High School to boo incoming freshmen at assemblies. This year, however, the administration imposed a new rule that states that there shall be no booing of any grades at assemblies. This was put in place in order to provide a more welcoming environment for all students, especially for the freshmen.
This rule is fine in intention but generally useless in reality, as evidently, students will continue to boo the freshmen regardless. In fact, at the homecoming assembly, I saw a group of juniors and seniors not following the rule and head-shaking staff telling them to ‘stop.’ None of the freshmen seemed to care either way. They didn’t look the slightest bit upset.
Additionally, it is a Roosevelt tradition that is harmless fun. People may say it is mean, but I think that it’s light- hearted. Once sophomores, students get to boo the new freshmen. It is quite frankly a rite of passage. I’ve even heard a freshman say that they were even “willing to boo themselves and did not care.”
When I was a freshman, I was a little surprised to learn of this tradition, but didn’t take it too seriously. Overall, it’s just an innocuous tradition that humbles freshmen. I had to deal with it when I was a freshman, and they should have to as well. Administrators should exert their energy on more important issues like safety, instead of wasting their time on minor things like this harmless tradition.
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