By Akansha Gupta

To make new students feel more welcome, the Gunn administration decided that the senior first-day theme should not include scary decorations or bloody, death related costumes.

Some seniors were upset by the sudden change. Senior Emilia Boultbee was looking forward to seeing her entire class unite with the traditional bloody theme and was irritated it was no longer possible. “To me at least, it feels like this is just another thing that the school is taking away from us,” she said. Though she recognizes that the policy demonstrates Gunn’s consideration for students and staff’s well-being, she points out that the senior class had certain hopes and expectations for their first day. “The Class of 2017 has kind of felt like guinea pigs to a bunch of new policies,” she said, “It kind of kicks off senior year at a low point because we can’t do something that has been [traditional] for a while.”

Senior Class President Lucy Augustine believes that the policy change did not reduce her class’s excitement for the first day or their plans to dress-up. “I think there was initially some anger but overall people have rebounded and chosen to make the first day of school a positive experience,” she said. Augustine believes the communication gap between the school administration and the student government was the root of the disappointment felt by some seniors. “We didn’t foresee any problems, so we started planning in the same way it has been done in the past,” she said, “Since the administration was not involved in the initial brainstorming, they were unable to express their concerns to us before it was too late.” She hopes this incident will help avoid communication errors in the future.