The use of live animals in the Spirit Week Hallway is a cheapskate way to garner free “cuteness” points and represents no talent or hard work. Class of 2023’s Senior saloon brought in a live horse, a classic representative of the old western stereotype. Although the idea was good, the lack of effort compared to the amount of points that horse brought was baffling. The current senior class, Class of 2024, lost some teachers’ votes due to the “unbelievability” that we created our own cardboard dinosaurs–but where’s the originality or the hard work shown in the presence of just having a horse stand outside the school that bought those teachers’ votes? 

Current senior Cammy Shim shares similar sentiments in the distaste of using a live animal for points in the spirit week hallway: “It’s a cop out, and it isn’t made by them. They’re not a part of the hallways and can be messy.” It is messy, it’s unoriginal and overall, not worth the hype generated.

The use of animals either needs to be taken off the table or we need to have a rule that they cannot swing teachers votes.  Not only does it show that you can buy votes but that the actual creative process and work of other hallways can be downvoted by an animal you can have just stand there. Although there wouldn’t be any more animals or the promise of animals in the senior hallway (or any hallway for that matter), people’s drive to be more creative would push the hallways just up one more level.

Hallways are an integral part of the Haddonfield Spirit Week festivities, and it should be treated as such. The hard work and dedication that students put into our spirit week activities should not be diminished by a horse or a cat. If only one little animal can sway a teacher’s vote, what’s the point of hard work?