By Brandi Watters
The Herald Bulletin
LAPEL, Ind. —
Bouncing a pingpong ball into Ricker cups strategically placed on a fellow student’s head isn’t a Lapel tradition.
It isn’t a typical first day of school either.
But this year, Lapel High School teachers and administrators decided to jump start the year with a high energy back-to-school rally.
Lapel High School Principal Greg Granger emceed the event, calling for volunteers as games were announced.
Students battled their peers, along with a select few teachers who dared to challenge the teens.
One game tasked students and teachers to blow up a balloon and use the air from the then-deflating balloon to knock down a row of paper cups.
Another challenge saw students shaking their bodies to free a pingpong ball from a tissue box tied to their posteriors.
All the while, students sang with pop music pumping over the auditorium speakers, cheering on the teams.
Algebra teacher John Willis said the rally gave students a chance to see teachers having fun outside of the classroom.
“It’s to show them we’re people, too. We like to have fun, too,” he said.
Willis said the school hoped to start the year with an entertaining event to send a message to students. “This is the kids’ school and we want them to enjoy it and have fun here.”
“It’s crazy,” freshman Audrey Burton said, watching her new classmates compete on stage.
Burton said she didn’t expect to witness a school rally during the first hour of her first day in high school, but admitted that the activities did get her excited to start school.
Her favorite part of the rally?
“Not going to class,” she said.
Students roared with laughter as a fashion show started, emphasizing the school dress code with some exaggerated examples of inappropriate clothing.
Students were dressed in sloppy T-shirts and too-short shorts to demonstrate what not to do. A pair of teen boys paraded across the stage wearing women's clothing stuffed with balloons.
Elwood transfer student Taylor Laughlin, 14, said the rally made her eager to meet other students.
Frankton High School transfer Karlee Spangler, 17, admitted that she’d been extremely nervous that morning, worried about transferring to a new school.
Her nerves were eased as the music filled the auditorium and her fellow students began cheering during the rally.
By the end of the rally, Spangler decided she was going to like it at Lapel.
As the rally ended, Granger called on students to get serious while he discussed school conduct.
He started by asking students to treat each other as they did during the rally.
“For an hour, you didn’t care who you were. You were a team. You were a family.”
Granger encouraged the student body to carry the school spirit into the classroom.
“When you’re in a school day, you need to cheer each other on.”
Granger admitted that he was a lazy student during high school, but his treatment of others had helped him to reach his goals.
“I got here because of the way I treated people along the road,” he said.
As he walked through the crowd, Granger pulled various students to their feet, telling the crowd about the integrity and character of each student.
Before heading back to class, Granger asked students to carry the spirit of the rally into the classrooms and the hallways, instead of bullying, judging or harassing their classmates.
“Too many times we judge people long before we get a chance to know them.”
Contact Brandi Watters 640-4847, brandi.watters@heraldbulletin.com.
