Editorial

The Lance is a school sponsored publication of Westside High School, Westside Community Schools, 8701 Pacific St., Omaha, NE 68144. The Lance office is located in room 251. Phone: (402) 343- 2650. The Lance is an in-house publication. The paper is distributed every month to all students, except in vacation periods. Subscription rates to others are $30 prepaid. The Lance is printed by White Wolf Web, in Sheldon, IA. Advertising rates are available upon request. The Lance editorial staff reserves the right to edit all ads for clarity and grammatical errors. The editorial staff reserves the right not to publish any ads that are libelous or that contain non-factual information. The Lance editorial staff also reserves the right to nullify contracts at any time without prior notification. The Lance also refuses ads that promote activities illegal to a majority of the student readership. Reader response is welcomed in the form of letters to the editor. Letters should be less than 300 words, signed by the author and sent to room 251. Names may be withheld upon special request. Lance editors will decide whether to honor such requests. The Lance editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and grammatical errors. The editorial staff also reserves the right to not publish any letters that are libelous or contain non-factual information. The Lance is a member of the Nebraska High School Press Association, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association and the Quill & Scroll Society. The Lance staff recognizes that the administration of Westside Community Schools controls the curriculum and, thus, sets the parameters of the production process of school publications. The Lance staff also recognizes its own responsibilities to inform, enlighten and entertain its readers in a way that reflects high standards of journalism, morals and ethics. Editor-in-Chief Luke Steiner; Design Editor Jasmine Palikhya; Managing Editors Izzy Dodge and Kiera Ginn; Business Manager Charlotte Miller; Copy Editor Jadyn Anderson; News Editor Auguste Kuehne; In Depth and Opinion Editor Charlotte Miller; Feature Editor Kate Stevens; Arts & Entertainment Editor Emma Tyler; Graphics Editor Delaney Davis; Humans Editor Emma Allen; Staff Lydia Frost, Zoe Rector, Sydney Rolles, Dani Acers, Presley Gofta, December Thomas, Ted Twit.

Rethinking recognition of athletics & academics

It appears that athletics are held to a higher standard and praised more than academics. Athletes at Westside are recognized with yearround banquets, posters around the school and praise from administrators, staff and students. Athletic recognition is well deserved, especially considering that Westside has one of the best athletic programs in the state, but academic achievements should be held to as high of a standard that athletics are.

Academics should be recognized more frequently and given more recognition because students put as much effort and time into academics as athletes do into athletics.

Principal Jay Opperman explains how Westside is trying to give academics more recognition.

“We used to do a ninth through eleventh grade award night in the spring, but we are not going to do that ceremony anymore because it wasn’t very well attended,” Opperman said. “We really want to recognize each semester, so we are going to start publishing Honor Rolls at the end of each semester. We are [trying] to make that academic recognition for doing service and doing well in classes more frequent and public.”

Opperman also said that the National Honor Society and the new class rank system, the Latin Honor System, are other ways that academics are recognized.

“[Before COVID], we had three celebration pep rallies each year, and when we do [pep rallies], we really emphasize acknowledging academics and other activities,” Opperman said. “We would just try and recognize different things like attendance, good grades, maybe great performances in a wide variety of things and maybe have a little competition. We are really hoping as [COVID] hopefully starts to go away, that we can start doing [pep rallies] again because we really want to recognize students for doing great things, whether it’s academics, activities, clubs, athletics, or just being a great person.”

Opperman said that Westside is trying to recognize academic achievements in other ways by trying to recognize students in different classes and areas of interest. “We are [starting] to have teachers and other staff nominate students for great academic improvements, doing something great for the school, or doing something great for their peers,” Opperman said. “We are just really trying to work on broadening the definition of recognition, because we have all kinds of students that are doing great things in a lot of different ways.” When academics are not recognized enough, students lose motivation to do well in their classes. Most times, academic achievements are only used for college applications, and having more recognition of these accomplishments will motivate students and allow them to feel a sense of pride.

Athletes feel accomplished when they win games or break records, but students with academic achievements are unsupported by the community and their peers in that way.

Opperman believes that athletics at Westside are recognized in a lot of different ways and that Westside is working towards recognizing other performances as well.

“Athletically, there have traditionally been a lot of things in place, both formal recognition and informal recognition, so I don’t know if we need to create other ways to recognize [athletics],” Opperman said. “I think we want to continue to develop how we can recognize great academic performance and just other great performances, whether it’s service to others, hard work, how you interact with your peers, or your leadership. That’s something [that], as a school, I hope we can continue to work on and grow at.”

Administration is taking steps to improve the recognition of academics, but students and community members are not. Posters of athletes are posted in the hallways and many students could easily name a variety of varsity athletes. Athletes wear their jerseys on game days and their accomplishments are often posted about on school affiliated social media and spoken about over the intercom.

We should try to hold academic and community achievements to the same standard as athletics. Acknowledgement of academics needs to continue to grow.