Homecoming has been an EHS tradition for generations. Although many things about the dance have not changed, Student Council works to add new traditions to homecoming each year.

This year, Student Council has added a spirit week to the agenda.

Spirit weeks are nothing new to EHS students. The Red Ribbon Week spirit week usually falls the week after homecoming, so Student Council has never planned homecoming theme days to avoid having back-to-back spirit weeks.

But this year, Student Council vice president senior Hannah Griffin said the homecoming spirit week could be added because there are two weeks between Red Ribbon Week and homecoming.

“We wanted to add something else to the week and have more fun,” Griffin said.

After deciding on potential theme days during a Student Council meeting, Student Council checked with EPIC to be sure that no themes were repeated during homecoming and Red Ribbon Week. The themes were then approved by administration, Griffin said, and Student Council released the spirit week schedule as Career day, Classy day, America day and Tiger Spirit day.

Although the week received approval from administrators, it lacked the approval of some EHS students.

“I was disappointed,” senior Daniel Reed said. “I thought [Student Council] showed a lack of creativity. We just had America day [on Sept. 23] and we are going to have a classy day on Saturday [at homecoming].”

(Student Council later clarified that Classy day did not mean wear fancy clothing, but instead wear the same color as your class)

Reed took his opinion to social media.

On Sept. 26, Reed tweeted that although he will probably participate, he was disappointed with the spirit week themes.

As of Oct. 5, Reed’s tweet has received over 50 favorites and nearly 20 retweets.

“I don’t typically get all that attention on Twitter,” Reed said. “So that shocked me.”

Griffin was also shocked by the support Reed received.

“I didn’t think that spirit week was that big of a deal,” Griffin said. “I didn’t expect it at all.”

With the support of some students behind them, Reed and a few other seniors created alternative theme days for homecoming week including Hippie day, Duo day, Camo day and Tiger Spirit day. They brought their ideas to Student Council and administration, Reed said, but neither were able to change the days.

“We had to get the [Student Council] days approved, and themes such as hippie day didn’t get approved [by administration],” Griffin said. “It also took a couple weeks to get the current spirit week approved, so by the time the students made new theme days we didn’t have enough time to take a Student Council vote and meet with administration.”

Although Reed understood why Student Council couldn’t revamp their spirit week, he and the other students still wanted to participate in their alternative spirit days.

“[Administration] can’t really penalize use for wearing clothes,” Reed said. “We just can’t say our days are school approved because they aren’t. As long as we are being truthful, we aren’t breaking the rules.”

Reed and his peers decided to get the word out about their alternative spirit days, and he said people “seemed to listen.”

But not all EHS students were responsive to the alternative spirit days.

Senior Elaine Meyers said when she heard about Student Council’s theme days, she thought they could have been more creative but she wasn’t upset about them.

“I respect what Student Council does and how much work they put in for homecoming and the school,” Meyers said. “Although a lot of my friends are participating in the other week, I decided to do the Student Council week.”

Meyers saw Student Council’s spirit week on Twitter, but she said she saw more tweets about the alternative week on her timeline.

“People who didn’t even know about the Student Council week may have done the other week because they saw it on Twitter,” Meyers said.

Reed agreed that Twitter helped inform students about the alternate spirit week, especially underclassmen.

“I don’t get to see everyone during the day, so if they follow me on Twitter or follow someone who retweeted me, then they saw what our new days were,” Reed said.

After hearing about both weeks through Twitter and word of mouth, sophomore Taegan Riley decided to take part in the alternative spirit week. Riley said she had more clothing for the alternate theme days and she wanted to “stick up for the students.”

Although Twitter spread information about the theme days, Riley and Griffin said it spread students’ opinions on the two spirit weeks even more.

“I think Twitter has made [the situation] worse,” Griffin said. “It has made this a bigger deal than it needed to be or that it ever should have been.”

But Reed thinks all of the hype surrounding both spirit weeks got more students involved.

“A lot of people participated, if not in the new days we made in the StuCo days,” Reed said.

And Meyers said that participation helps boost Tiger morale.

“I feel like we are still a school with a lot of spirit,” Meyers said. “I think people were just unhappy and wanted a change.”