Photo courtesy of sophomore Karl Karsh.

Students at San Luis Obispo High School were looking forward to attending Homecoming in October. Everyone at the school was invited, which was exciting. However, anyone who is in marching band was almost unable to attend the dance. 

  There was a band competition that was scheduled to be on October 16. Even with this being scheduled months in advance, the Homecoming dance was still held on the same day. The only reason everyone in marching band was able to be there was because of their competition being cancelled. 

  “I’m angry that there was not the foresight to see this conflict. I, like some other band seniors, haven’t ever been to the Homecoming dance, and have, as such, been robbed of this opportunity,” said senior Cody Barriger, before knowing that he was going to be able to attend.

  As a senior coming out of quarantine, it’s really important to be able to go to school events and experience the last year of high school. It’s sad to know that all of the seniors in marching band thought they wouldn’t be a part of this. 

  “It’s disappointing to see that the year we come back to finally be around people and celebrate different events, a select group of people believed they wouldn’t be able to join in on these celebrations. The people I feel bad for are the seniors in band because it’s their last year and they wouldn’t have been able to celebrate it,” said freshman Luisa Nunez. 

  Everyone who is in band was affected by thinking they were not able to go to the Homecoming dance. Given the circumstances in the last year, it’s extremely upsetting that everyone wasn’t included when deciding on a date.

  “Homecoming is a huge event at high schools. We have to coordinate with the athletic department, as well as the administrations when we choose dates. We have one home football game this year, and it was on October 15. That dictates when the dance will be… the following night. Unfortunately, we couldn’t change the date,” said ASB teacher Jim Johnson. 

  Thankfully, everyone in marching band was ultimately able to attend the dance because of the schedule change. Next time, marching band might not be as lucky. 

  “Going to Homecoming was good. However, just because the immediate issue of the scheduling conflict was resolved, it isn’t an excuse. It took the state to literally be on fire to be able to attend the dance,” said Barriger.