With some seniors fretting the costs of college, the additional fees for graduation seem intimidating. Even though seniors already had a lot to think about, Battle held a mandatory senior meeting on October 21 during third block. During the senior meeting, many different proclamations were made. Most importantly, Battle’s official 2025 senior apparel was showcased, including several shirts, a hoodie, pants, and more.
However, to many, the presentation was strange. What should’ve been an exciting reveal felt like a sales pitch for the sole purpose of making money. There was nothing sincere about the presentation; rather, it felt like the opposite. One of the most important years for high schoolers in terms of memorability was twisted to feel more like a time for student exploitation.
“It felt like an unskippable infomercial [….] There was necessary info, but a lot of it was just trying to get people to buy stuff.” Said senior Breleigh Moore when discussing their opinion on the meeting.
The meeting had an artificial feel to it. One that would distract from what students really cared about. The meeting played almost like a pre-recorded video, with no real way of connecting to its audience.
“It felt disconnected from what students actually care about.” Moore continued, “There were attempts to connect with the audience that didn’t really work.”
However, Moore wasn’t alone in their opinion, as senior Spencer Baker shared similar remarks.
“It kinda felt like a big ad. Felt like they were just trying to sell us stuff. I wasn’t really given any new information.”
The meeting seemed to only take away from students, disregarding what seniors may have felt whether or not they wanted to know. As a result, students felt tricked or even exploited, Baker especially.
“It took the focus off of graduation merchandise being a celebration. It felt kinda exploity of the students because they gave us all this class stuff and made the prices super high.”
With multiple senior models to show off the new merch driving home the sales pitch factor, many students felt like the senior meeting wasn’t about them. Baker added that the lack of a familiar face for the presenter did not help with the TV ad feeling. In addition, Moore stated that “the booth full of stuff was off-putting… it felt like Shark Tank almost.” According to Moore, the fliers around the school had the same TV ad effect. On top of this, Moore had hoped that the presentation wouldn’t feel so pre-rehearsed, saying, “A lot of it was just the same stuff over and over, and I was like, okay, we know you practice this on a bunch of other schools.”
Students mutually shared through interviews that they hoped the meeting would have been more authentic, but mainly were perturbed by the fact that seniors were required to attend. “It just felt we were there at the sales pitch that we mandatorily had to be at,” stated Moore.
What could’ve been a captivating way to make seniors feel special during their last year of high school, only further separated seniors from the school. Now, seniors are left wishing they had a school that actually cared about them and didn’t see them purely as buyers at an auction.
