HPHS Fish Camp
Question unrelated to the headline above or the HPISD release below: Does any Dazed and Confused-style hazing go on at Highland Park High School? Roving gangs of seniors with paddles striking at graduating eighth-graders?
From the district today:
HPHS plans fish camp to smooth transition for new freshmen
The first day of high school can be nerve-wracking for a new freshman.
Imagine walking up the steps for the first time, not knowing where your locker is, where to eat lunch or how to sign up for a school club.
HPHS wants to calm those first-day jitters by having fish camp.
Incoming freshmen are invited to come to the high school to meet faculty members and upperclassmen, learn their way around, and get off to a great start as they begin their adventures as HPHS Scots. Fish camp will be from 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 22, with students whose last names begin with A-K attending from 9 a.m. -12:00 p.m. and L-Z from 10:15 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Activities and information will include:● Campus tours
● Yearbook pictures
● Student IDs
● Locker assignments
● Class schedules
● Style show (to illustrate appropriate dress)
● Club preview
● Lunch
● Special edition of Bagpipe newspaper including everything a
freshman needs to know“We all know how important the first day of school is, and we want to do everything we can to be sure that our students start off their year feeling confident,” said Kim Rose, director of guidance and counseling.
“We’re going to make it a really fun day for them. We’re working closely with our upperclassmen, who will act as camp counselors and answer the million and one questions every new freshman has.”HPHS counselor Stacey Ruff says this year about 80 upperclassmen will be camp counselors, and they’ll wear their fish camp T-shirts on the first day of school so that freshmen will know to look for someone in a T-shirt if they get lost.
I really have no meaningful comment to make on this but since my captcha words are Memories and Running, I’ll just chime in that this is a great thing to do for freshmen. Because my “memories running” back to ninth grade are pretty scary . . . it was sink or swim for fishes at my high school.
My daughter is in the 5th grade version at MIS this week. Today they practiced opening the combination lock on the locker. It’s a fab idea and the kids love it.
The 9th grade session is probably more important but I wonder, is there stress about an outift just to attend the camp?
At the high school I attended in California, we had sororities and fraternities that did a lot of “initiation-style” rituals, such as air raids, pledge nights every Tuesday, possible paddling (although none of the guys admitted it), and other rites of passage. College pledgeship had nothing on high school.
There may be extra stress about what to wear. The freshmen dress for their school pictures. Boys wear coat and tie.