Following several years of student-organized grad celebrations that have gone awry, Elgin Park Secondary is giving its graduating class a school-sanctioned alternative.
Elgin’s Grade 12s – all 230 of them – will be bused to Blackie Spit today (Wednesday) to compete against classmates and teachers in a number of organized games and activities, before heading back to the school for an afternoon barbecue with staff.
Grad Sports Day is meant to show the students that they can have fun and celebrate the end of high school in a respectful and positive way, according to math teacher Grace Win, who spearheaded the project.
“The idea of me coming up with this Grade 12 sports day is so they have a closer bond with the staff here, too,” she said.
The event is being organized in response to concerns over one of the most popular grad traditions at the three local high schools, in which girls ‘kidnap’ their male classmates and dress them in drag before parading them around in the community and through school hallways.
Win said the ‘grad run-through’ has been associated with alcohol consumption, vandalism and other disruptive behaviour.
“For Elgin, it’s gotten a little out of hand in the last two years. We love it here… what Elgin represents, and we don’t want that to be tarnished.”
Principal Kevin DeBoice said the practice – which has become “not tolerable anymore” – had its final run at Elgin last year.
This year’s grad class understands the reasons for not continuing the tradition, DeBoice said, and the students have taken on staff’s challenge to create a “grad legacy” instead of a prank.
“They want to be loud and proud but not mess it up for next year’s grads,” DeBoice said, noting the legacy students come up with may become a new tradition for future Grade 12s. “(They will) try to create something that other years want to do.”
And, if the sports day proves successful, it could become a regular on the grad calendar.
“It gives them something else to do that they don’t have to organize,” DeBoice said. “It is an in-house attempt to bring staff and students together in a positive way.”
Win said connecting with the grads may cause them to consider how their actions affect others.
“If you build a relationship and have this bond with them, they will think twice.”
More than 20 teachers have already signed up to participate in Grad Sports Day, which was organized by Grade 11 physical education leadership students.
Win said the goal was to create something memorable, and when she asked grads what they remembered most from their elementary school years, many of them talked about sports day.
Elgin has recreated elements from students’ childhood sports days by bringing back familiar activities such as the three-legged race, tug of war, water-balloon toss and egg-and-spoon race.
The day has been funded through PAC and student donations. Any funds leftover are to be donated to a charity.
“It’s always a good feeling to give back to the community,” Win said. “If everything goes well with this, we’d like to continue year after year.”