Ever since COVID-19 changed our lives, the morale around Marshall has been low. After last year’s football scandal, it fell even lower. But this school year was different; a ray of hope burst through the darkness with student turnout at football games and basketball games exemplifying togetherness as a Marshall community. It showed that there was something we as students could rally behind.
Principal Litz is trying to make Marshall a more happy and positive community, but limiting student expression at games takes away from the fun. It feels that everything we students do has to be controlled by administration.
During homecoming, multiple students requested to change a spirit day to a more accessible theme. This idea was shot down and led to the Marshall Mob creating ‘alternate spirit days.’ Our principal called this “anti-homecoming,” yet it was powerful to see students take action on something they cared about.
The new rules Litz applied in his email on Jan. 31 included moving the student section back two to three rows, leaving the first several rows for administrators to monitor the students. Additionally, the school instituted a zero tolerance policy for SR&R violations and future Mob leaders will be asked to join student leadership classes.
These rules crushed the spirit we’ve built as a student body this school year. Being constantly monitored and controlled makes it clear that administration has no trust in their students. The rules included make this seem like it is something happening specifically at Marshall, but it’s not. If you were to go to another high school basketball game you would see and hear the same things: the chants, the heckling, all of it.
So why aren’t other schools taking the same actions as Marshall? It can’t possibly be something that is only happening here, so what is the reason for this big of a reaction out of our administration, but not our neighboring schools?