Revere High School (RHS) hosted its annual Class Day assembly for students to relax between end of course exams (EOCs) and AP exams as students compete to win the Class Day trophy.
Class Day is an assembly-style event that generally takes place towards the end of the school year and before the seniors’ last day before they leave for internships. This year, it took place May 1. During the event, students compete and represent their graduating class against the other classes in different events. Due to the assembly, periods are shortened from 45 minutes to 32 minutes to delegate time for the assembly which is two hours long.
In this year’s competition, the events included: the Girls Baton Race with four competitors per grade; the Boys Baton Race with four competitors per grade; the Scooter Race with eight competitors per grade; the Hula Hoop Circle Relay with fifteen competitors per grade; the Air Mattress Relay with eight competitors per grade; the Tire Roll Relay with six competitors per grade; Girls Tug of War Semifinal with ten competitors per grade; the Boys Tug of War Semifinal with ten competitors per grade; the Academic and Pop Culture Quiz with six of each grade, three of each gender; the Pool Noodle Fencing with two competitors from each grade; One-Arm Knockout two competitors from each grade, one of each gender; the Plunger Torch Relay with six competitors; Box Stack Relay with seven competitors from each grade, the Girls Tug of War Final with ten competitors from each each grade; the Boys Tug of War Final with ten from each grade; a staff vs. senior dodgeball as an intermission in the middle of the rest of the events.
RHS principal Doug Faris started the framework of Class Day five years ago, and it has grown and fostered since.
“[Class Day] is my baby. . . . The first Class Day was supposed to be in May of the 2018-2019 school year,” said Faris.
Due to the COVID-19 shutdown during May of 2019, Class Day was not able to be anything but a dream. RHS fulfilled this dream in the 2021-2022 school year after assembly precautions were lifted.
The first Class Day happened in May of 2022, and it proved difficult due to the low participation with students being shy after COVID-19. Even now, Class Day proves stressful for Faris as he fulfills his duties.
“For the 2020-2021 school year, the state said that we could not have any assemblies, so we could not have [Class Day] . . . May of 2021-2022, it was kind of a train wreck because everyone was shy coming into it,” Faris said.
“Class Day is stressful for me. . . . I always enter into Class Day reminding students that yes, it is a competition, but there is no reason to get into a fist fight,” Faris said.
While Class Day can be stressful for staff members, many are keen to see how students decorate and show spirit.
“A lot of the teachers like to see the theme the seniors picked. . . . I love the class colors, the signs and the banners,” Faris said.
Senior Isabelle Aiken is a member of the League of Leaders, the group that helps Faris make decisions about Class Day and events.
“The League of Leaders thinks of all the games we would like to keep, get rid of or change based on the previous year’s Class Day. In addition,we think of new and fun games to replace old ones as well as the point system, rules and procedures to play the game,” Aiken said.
The League of Leaders meets a few times throughout the year with Faris to assign teams and players to event as well as plan out the order of the events in order to help the organization and make it fun for everyone.
“I love Class Day and the excitement it brings to the school in the spring. The fourth quarter of school is a time when many students feel burnt out or unmotivated; however, Class Day really does help many students with finding something to look forward to in the last stretch of the school year, myself included,” Aiken said.
But in order for Class Day to be a successful break for students, changes need to be made on the layout, rules and organization in order for it to be safe, fun and fair for all students.
“Class Day has changed in the last four years in a positive way. We have more exciting games than my freshman year Class Day. This year was different, however, in that each class had to stay off the court, as well as that Mr. Faris chose all of the players for each event, which is usually done by the League of Leaders,” Faris said.
