Ever since Vandegrift opened, each incoming freshman class has been bigger and bigger. Recently, the school has had issues fitting all of the students into the gym for pep rallies and assemblies. To solve this problem, pep rallies have been held outside or split into two pep rallies, one for the freshmen and sophomores and one for the juniors and seniors. The most recent solution has been an online pep rally, where interviews with each of the represented organizations were taped and posted on Youtube for students to view at their leisure.

Online pep rallies are a reasonable way to have pep rallies at the greatest convenience of the teachers and students.

Online pep rallies allow the students to have more time learning in the classroom. With normal pep rallies, students are released according to grade level to go to the gym (or outside) during pit. This slow method is the best way to get students into the stands with minimal chaos, but is extremely time consuming and requires students to spend long periods of time just waiting for things to get started. After the pep rally, all of the students trying to get out causes even more trouble, and teachers have to start class late as they wait for students from programs who were participating in the pep rally. Without these “normal” pep rallies, students could spend that pit time doing homework or studying for tests and teachers would be able to start class on time with their students.

Online pep rallies are also more convenient for students. Online pep rallies can be viewed in the comfort of a student’s own home, which prevents the unpleasant experience of being crammed in the stands with the air thick and hot from packed bodies. And when viewed from home, these online pep rallies can be more clearly understood without the screaming and distracting background noise of other students and music. If students miss something or another important event comes up while viewing an online pep rally, the video can be paused and rewound so students can watch the entire pep rally without missing anything.

Finally, online pep rallies would put less stress on the staff and activities featured in the rallies. With everything being online, there would be minimal worry of delay or technical difficulties because everything could be filmed separately and at any time. There would be no worry with major setup and teardown and any mistakes made during the filmed sections could be redone or edited out, leaving a polished finished product. All students could easily see each programs performances without the worry of crowds, giving the dance and cheer programs the chance to present their show clearly to the students.

Even though online pep rallies are convenient, actual live pep rallies are much better with getting the student body excited and stirring up school spirit than sitting at home alone watching a pep rally. Vandegrift should continue with the occasional live pep rally for exciting, unique occasions, but for most general pep rallies, the school should seriously consider adopting the practice of online pep rallies.