Do you wear  the same socks every Super Bowl? Do you go to the same place every Thanksgiving? Traditions are an important part of life.

Whether it be wearing football jerseys the day of a game, or decorating the hallways for Spirit Week, tradition is a big part of school spirit. One important tradition at Verona High School is Halloween.

In years past, it was an unspoken rule stating seniors were the only ones allowed to dress up on Halloween. It was considered a senior privilege as well as tradition. This year, however, it went a little differently. A new plan by student council made Halloween the first day of Spirit Week and everyone was allowed and encouraged to wear their costumes for school.

For a lot of people, this was a great change. But for some of the seniors, it came as a smack in the face. According to senior Ryan McLaughlin, the underclassmen hadn’t earned the right to wear their costumes to school. When he was a freshman, Ryan says he always looked forward to dressing up as a senior and never felt excluded. When his time finally came, he was angry that underclassmen were automatically allowed to wear costumes. Ryan believes that Halloween should be a part of Spirit Week but that only seniors should be allowed to dress up. He believed it to be a senior privilege in which underclassmen should not participate. But not all seniors feel this way.

According to senior Nina Navarro, it wasn’t fair that underclassmen weren’t allowed to dress up. She was initially unhappy with the rule change because she wasn’t allowed to dress up as an underclassman, but then changed her mind and believes everyone should be allowed to dress up.  Nina looked back on her time as a freshman and recalled feeling sad and left out when only seniors were allowed to dress up. She thinks that younger students would dress up more because everyone dresses up in middle school and Halloween costumes are  mostly a tradition for young kids.

Among senior, the view on this leans more towards Ryan’s opinion. But throughout the school, it seems most people agree with Nina. The general consensus was the more people who dress up, the more included and less embarrassed people will feel. Besides seniors, the grade that had the most people who dressed up was the freshman which raises the question as to why that is. It could be because the freshmen were unaware of the tradition, or they were more connected to Halloween. Regardless it goes to show that more people will dress (creating more school spirit) if everyone is allowed to.