Staff ed: Senior class—give up lip sync!

The crowd waits, quiet. The spotlight falls on a group of five boys, clad in too tight shirts and clothed in outrageous colors—almost as loud as the music that starts playing in the background. As the lyrics come onto the speakers, the boys open their mouths and begin to sing and the crowd erupts into laughter and applause.

This humorous event is the annual senior class fund raiser. Doesn’t sound too familiar? You may not remember since it hasn’t taken place in two years.

As an attempt to raise money for the numerous amounts of activities, the senior class has planned for a second semester Lip-Sync, where groups of students dance and mouth song lyrics. This has always been a popular idea, but the event has now gained the reputation of a joke—because it has always been an idea, but rarely transformed into reality. The event is always postponed, and then eventually canceled.

The idea of Lip-Sync as a creative way to relieve some of the stress, is a good one. The problem, however, lies in finding willing volunteers.

While underclassmen are too timid to dance and sing in front of large crowds (Homecoming quad day dances are enough for one school year), juniors and seniors who would participate have far too many other commitments to hold practices and choreograph dances. With the introduction of AP classes and the SATs for juniors and college applications and first semester grades for seniors, upperclassmen are left with little time for Lip Sync. Attending the event would take less than two hours, but performers contract themselves to a month of time away from academics, something juniors and seniors cannot afford at this time of year.

Moving Lip Sync to a later spring date is not an option, because the events that it funds such as Prom happen during the end of second semester. In addition, second semester seniors aren’t exactly…dependable—senioritis, anyone? As for the juniors, there are still new things such as AP testing and Prom to distract them from prepping for a frivolous school event.

It is time for the senior class to give up this tradition of postponement and cancellation—Lip-Sync is not working. There are numerous other events the senior class use to raise money for the last few months of high school. Maybe instead of hosting one large event, the senior class can raise money throughout the year by selling candy at games, having fund raisers at restaurants or the good old fashioned way—begging parents. In any case, it’s clear Lip Sync isn’t working.