Article by Zoe Stack

Shouts, accompanied by the sounds of ripping tape, reverberated around the halls of Tosa West today.

Spirit hit an all time high for students at Wauwatosa West on Thursday October 1st: Color Wars. Day Four has always consisted of students ‘tagging’ fellow students with duct tape, stickers, post-it notes or the like. Each grade level has a color assigned to them. Seniors are blue, juniors red, sophomores yellow, and freshman brown. Each grade level can only tag the grades below them.

“It was interesting a lot of students came up to me and started wrapping me with tape which was kind of awkward but kind of funny at the same time,” said freshman Teresa Toohill

Many other students had very positive feelings about the day.

“It’s crazy. We don’t have the homecoming week. We can’t do this kind of stuff at school, so it’s like like, Oh My Gosh this is not school,” said senior Italian foreign exchange student L. Andrea De Sanctis.

Spirit Days are crazy, but administration does try to keep it a controlled and safe environment.

“My first year for sure, maybe part of my second year as well, students were really mean. They were actually hazing freshman. I remember walking down the hall and seeing a freshman like covered in paint, head to toe. And others were covered with marker, head to toe,” said principal Frank Calarco.

This year certain rules were enforced to keep students safe. For instance, no paint or markers were to be used on other students. In addition students were not to be wrapping other people up in tape.  

“I think that it’s good that Mr. Calarco is setting safety guidelines for the students for their own good,” said student supervisor Angela Wilson.

However, faculty did not want to dampen school spirit or hinder the fun.  

“I just want it to be a friendly competition, there’s no need to paint kids,” said Calarco.

Even with certain rules in place people, both students and teachers, had a lot of fun.

“I really like the camaraderie of how the students just get along with each other and are just like a big happy colorful family,” said Wilson, who was herself tagged by several students. She said, “I like to participate i was all for being tagged.”

“There are like the divisions of the grades but at the same time all the grades are playing with the others. There’s no game if there’s just one grade,” said  De Sanctis.

Many students were taped and had a great fun with that, however for some their favorite part had nothing to do with being taped themselves. Junior Melissa Biefeld thought that “watching everyone finish off their rolls of duct tape and just tape anybody they saw,” was the greatest part of the day.

All around it was simply a great day for spirit at Wauwatosa West.

“I love it cause it’s a great way to show pride in the time that you’ve accomplished here at Tosa west. Seniors are proud, this is their last year, they have four years down. I’m happy for them,” said Wilson.