Spirit bombers restore homecoming tradition
Seniors Spencer Miller (main), left to right- Hailena Bian, Akash Piya, James Xu, Akash Pamal spirit bomb an AP Chemistry class during Homecoming week. A long-time tradition at TJ, students are finally able to get back into spirit bombing.“Spirit bombing is a really fun way to get hype during hoco week and release a ton of energy,” Akash Pamal said.
September 27, 2021
The last spirit bomb was dropped Sept. 27, 2019. It has been two years since then. Finally, Jefferson’s tradition has returned.
Coming into Homecoming week, both the freshman and sophomore classes had never experienced spirit bombs.
“Since I am a sophomore, I wasn’t able to experience this last year because of virtual learning,” sophomore Grace Lee said. “I wasn’t really familiar with the idea of spirit bombing before last week, and it took a bit of asking around to understand what it was.”
Spirit bombing can mean different things to different people, and everyone chooses to show school spirit during homecoming uniquely.
“It is when the different classes come over [to other classes] and they say their chants back and forth to see who is the most spirited.”
“Classrooms full of students and teachers all participate in spirit bombing as a common motive to spread spirit and joy around the school,” Anderson-Lodge said.
“Spirit bombing is good at raising school spirit, and it helps inspire some spirit in students that don’t usually participate,” freshman Yousef Hadee said.
Distractions are the main concern with students interrupting lessons and possibly disturbing surrounding classrooms through shouting and jumping up and down.
“We do have to be mindful that teachers have time crunches and they are doing the best they can to teach a class,” humanities teacher Anderson-Lodge said. “It’s not that we don’t support fun or have spirit, it’s just teachers are juggling a lot of things and so it’s about that element of respect.”
Some students are in agreement with teachers regarding the impact of spirit bombing on classwork and student focus.
“I think they’re ok. They can be a little annoying sometimes because I don’t like loud noises but I chant with them,” Hadee said.
While others do not see it as a distraction, but more as a break or a pause from class.
“I don’t think that spirit bombing is a distraction because if something important is happening during class, most teachers know not to let spirit bombers enter,” senior Ignacio Toro said. “It increases spirit, and it provides a break from class.”
Spirit bombing adds a lot to the positive culture at TJ, and allows for space to lift each other up.
“When you’re encouraging the other side to get in on it, that’s exactly what we have a place for here.” Anderson-Lodge said. “That’s community, that’s reminding people that there is fun and that there is joy in what we do [spirit bombing].”
