When students attend school sporting events, they mostly view the varsity teams. Let us remind you not to forget about the junior varsity teams. In some instances, the junior varsity teams have better records than varsity. Granted, the levels of competition are on two different playing fields, however, they are participating in the same sport. Why not give them the same attention? Just like high school, there is a chain of command that is followed. Most students play JV before varsity level so they have been in similar shoes. There is a time for everything in high school and although JV players should receive some press, they will earn their time when it comes. Whether or not you participate at the JV or varsity level, students should always support their fellow classmates. Remember how much dedication and time they put into the sport.

Senior Rah, Senior What?
Spirit Week and pep rallies should, by definition, be a time for school spirit and student pride. But guys…what happened Oct. 26? Instead of being proud of our sports teams and bonding with each other over the general silliness of Spirit Week, we ended up with a pep rally boycott, principals looming in every hallway and a student being threatened with possible expulsion. What a memorable way to end the week. While we at The Viking Views do not necessarily agree with the way the situation was handled by administration, we are also disappointed by the blatant disrespect shown by many of the students. The students were so quick to boycott or pout their way through the pep rally that few even thought to consider how doing so would reflect upon their reputations. So many of these students are leaders within our school: team captains, club presidents, freshman mentors, AGAPE girls. We have a lot to be proud of, but how can we continue to be proud of ourselves after acting so childishly at the pep rally? What kind of message does that send to the staff members who have put us in those leadership positions, or the ones who are supposed to be able to look up to us? It may seem cool to be rebellious, but what happened at the end of our Spirit Week went beyond stereotypical teenaged rebellion. Yes, we were disrespectful toward the staff, but we also disrespected each other. We were unable to set aside our petty arguments and differences and just accept what had become of the senior prank attempt. So, students, it may be true that every graduating class wants to somehow leave its mark on the school. But throwing a giant tantrum just because you didn’t get your way isn’t the way to leave a lasting legacy. And seniors, you still have six months to go. There’s still time to find a better way to be remembered by future generations.

Cheaters Pay the Price
When you’re writing a paper, story or any written work, everyone worries about the content or errors. Have you ever thought about if you’re plagiarizing? If, maybe, you didn’t change the story you just copied and pasted enough to look like you wrote it? When you get caught does it make you feel bad or do you wish that you wouldn’t have gotten caught? Maybe if you had just changed a couple more words, you wouldn’t have this problem. Or maybe you shouldn’t have plagiarized in the first place. Why couldn’t you have written it yourself? Then you wouldn’t have to worry about if you get caught. Are you going to feel genuinely good about a good grade you received on something you didn’t write? Then you need to look at the consequences, getting a zero on your paper or maybe even expelled are some of the reparations you might have to endure. You also might want to think about the great feeling you get when your own work receives a good grade, you know that you did it yourself and earned that grade. We at The Viking Views believe that plagiarism can be easily avoided and should be. Students get caught every year, for what? So they can be lazy and copy other peoples work and call it their own. So do your own work, turn in your own work, and not others.