As Homecoming Week draws to a close, so does the heated inter-class competition that is a trademark of Homecoming Week at Jefferson. However, these class competitions often seem to do the exact opposite of what they were meant to do: bring the school together for Homecoming.

It seems to happen every year: a class gets booed or trash talked, a friendly rivalry grows into a full-fledged fight. While it seems that some take it too seriously, the feuds between classes can cause people to get hurt.

This is against the entire point of Homecoming. We are supposed to be united as one school, especially during Homecoming Week. Bad sportsmanship ruins that togetherness and causes a lot of anger that is completely unnecessary during this time of celebration.

In the end, Homecoming should be a fun, friendly week of school spirit and pride. But in some cases, we seem to lose that in favor of heated class competitions. Understandably, many people work very hard on float, banner, musical extravaganza (MEX), and costumes and dedicate a lot of time and effort to Homecoming Week—and we should be respectful of the amount of work that other students put in even if they are in another class.

This also applies to intra-class relationships. During the stress of putting together the final touches, students often lose sight of the overall fun of Homecoming. But the focus should stay on coming together as a class and as a school, not winning.