Halloween is one of the most fun times of the year here at Palisade, not just for the students but our High School community as a whole. Throughout the week students participated in different spirit days, bringing coolers and empty microwaves for “Anything But a Backpack” day, white tee shirts featuring funny statements such as “I love math” and “I know how to park my car” for our “White Lies” day. The main event, however, is the Halloween Assembly on the day of October 31st.
On this day, students are able to dress up with their friends and participate in the group costume contest. Famously recognizable groups can be seen walking the school, and once they enter the assembly they attempt to win over the crowd by showing off their costumes and throwing candy at the viewing students. Suddenly, the Ninja Turtles, Teletubbies, and the Peanut gallery are waltzing through the gymnasium.
This year featured numerous incredible group costumes with hard work and dedication from the students participating. What makes this dress-up day so fun, however, is deciding on the winner. To do so, our Student Council uses a noise-detector, and asks the students to cheer on the group with the best costume. The group with the loudest cheers wins, and this year it was a close race. The Teletubbies group as well as the dynamic duo of Brittany and Tiffany from the 2004 film “White Chicks.” To determine the winner, the groups played a spirited game of musical chairs, and it resulted in a win from the Teletubbies group. The group won little trophies as well as gift cards.
What makes this event so special for the entire school community is the participation of the teachers. Staff from each department decides on the group costume early on in the year, usually before the students even come back to school, and have everything finalized before Labor Day. “We talk about some, and then we start narrowing it down to things we think you guys will recognize, things we think we can make funny or enjoyable, and then we leave it up to a group vote and kind of feel it out.” Says Erin Niebla, a teacher in the math department here at Palisade. The teachers have “lots of super secretive meetings,” according to Niebla, to plan everything out. As a result of this, they did end up with a few duplicate costumes with two departments as characters from the movie saga “Starwars” as two groups as characters from the new film “Inside Out Two.”
Other department costumes included Principal Daniel Bollinger and Athletic Director Gregg Hawkins as Alfredo Linguini and his rat Remy from the movie “Ratatouille.” Another department was members from the classic film “Alice in Wonderland” with Alice, the Queen of Hearts and her playing cards, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter and several others. StuCo conducted the same measurement of winning, and again there was another close race between the math department as “Starwars” and the history department as “Inside Out Two.” Originally, the two groups tied, but the staff decided they wanted one clear winner. After another trial, the math department took the victory. “Winning always feels good,” says Niebla, “but I think my favorite part about it though is like I get to have fun with my friends, and it’s like the day that I feel like the staff is more like the kids and we get really into it and it’s fun and it’s very playful.” Our staff here at Palisade is a very close community. “My math team is really some of my best friends in the world,” explains Niebla.
Congratulations to the winners of this year’s contest, and we can’t wait to see you again next October. Go Bulldogs!
