Restored: With Student Input, NCHS Pep Rally Returns To Homecoming Week

Because New Canaan High School students started meeting at the end of last academic year and through the summer to plan for a Homecoming Week pep rally, the popular event will be restored one year after administrators cancelled it, officials say.

Student Council representatives, varsity team captains and others met with administrators to plan Spirit Week activities and, as a result, a well-loved school tradition will once again be held on the Friday headed into Homecoming Weekend, NCHS Principal Bill Egan said.

William Egan. Credit: Michael Dinan

“For me, it was something that I wanted to bring back history and traditions of the school, and that is something that the students had talked about being a big deal,” Egan told NewCanaanite.com.

“But with that comes a responsibility, too, and students were actually planning before I started, there were groups of students meeting with adults in building and trying to change activities and make it different. And they worked really hard to do that. So the fact that they were able to get together and take a real leadership role, for me it was something we had to do was to bring it back, because they really took ownership and were invested in making sure it was a successful event.”

The news comes one year after administrators cancelled the pep rally, citing safety concerns for students who in the past had shown up drunk.

As has been the policy for years, NCHS will have a closed campus next Friday, and NCHS Principal Bill Egan in an email sent Wednesday to parents and students said that any student who wishes to leave campus next Friday must have a parent write note or call the Attendance Office.

“Any student, even those juniors and seniors with standard parental permission, who leaves campus without obtaining prior permission through the Attendance Office will not be permitted to return to campus and will face disciplinary consequences,” Egan said in his email.

He also outlined the schedule for Spirit Week and noted that, again as has been a practice for years, students attending the Homecoming Dance next Saturday would be Breathlyzed.

In the wake of the cancelled pep rally last year, the dance was cancelled for the first time that anyone could remember after not enough tickets were sold to justify its cost. Tickets for this year’s event will go on sale Thursday.

According to Egan, the students also have been proactive and instrumental in designing a Homecoming Dance that’s expected to draw plenty of attendees.

“For me it is an important deal to be able to trust the kids and expect that they will act appropriately,” Egan said. “These are really good kids. We asked them, ‘What would you guys want to have a Homecoming Dance?’ Because initially the thought was, ‘Well, maybe we won’t have a dance.’ So I said, ‘No, we’ve got to have a dance. What would you want to make it right?’ So we are going to have a DJ, a photo booth, an ice cream social element to it. So again the kids were invested in what they wanted to have in the dance.”

Egan said in his email that for Spirit Week’s dress-up days, no students will be allowed to wear masks or face coverings, carry facsimile weapons such as swords or guns, and that no skates or skateboards are allowed.

“Costumes should allow a student to be identifiable, move around freely and although we welcome originality it should not present a disruption to classes,” Egan said.

“It is important to note that Homecoming Week does not disrupt the educational process and that all students behave in a way that promotes school spirit and unity,” he said in his email. “I expect that the majority of students who make up the NCHS community will not tolerate the inappropriate actions of a few.  Any student who violates the intent or the spirit of Homecoming Week will be sent home, excluded from the rest of the Homecoming activities, and will face other consequences as appropriate.”