Yesterday, during the senior class meeting, Mr. Tutwiler announced the end to the long held tradition of Hill Day. For more than thirty years, Wayland’s seniors have, on the last day of school, raced down the hill located behind the parking lots, celebrating the end of their pre-college school years. With many clad in bright colors, armed with silly string, noisemakers, and the like, they sweep through the halls, pounding on doors and lockers, popping into classrooms to yell out their delirious excitement, eventually uniting in the courtyard to celebrate.



The senior class was greatly unsettled by the principal’s announcement. Mr. Tutwiler presented the reasoning behind this decision to the class and sent out a newsletter today explaining it to the rest of the community: “Having witnessed it first-hand last year, I have an accurate sense of what Hill Day looks like. The hill down which students descend (perhaps “tumble down” would be a more appropriate characterization) is very steep, slippery, and covered in poison ivy – safety. Some, certainly not all, students are hung over, still inebriated, and/or weary from a long night of partying – illegal. While this is the last day for seniors, it is not for students in grades 9 through 11. Nonetheless, their learning is disrupted as the leaders of the school run through the halls, banging on locks and classroom doors – disruptive.”

Many students were devastated, and they ignited with fury. Most of the responses were along the lines of “You know, we’re still going to run down the hill, and so will the juniors and sophomores and freshman. They can’t stop us.” One student asked what would happen if the seniors resisted the rule and ran down the hill anyway. Many clapped in support of this question, agreeing that there’s nothing that can stop the seniors from defying the rule. Mr. Tutwiler simply replied, “It’s not something I’ve considered because it’s not going to happen.” The principal stated that, although Hill Day is a tradition, not all traditions are good, and they sometimes need to be replaced by new ones. But the senior class is not ready to change this rite that pretty much every student looks forward to from the first time they witness it, or even before then. Though it does not seem that they’re about to give up on the prospect of continuing what generations of Wayland students have done before, one student wanted to ensure that the underclassmen understood that it wasn’t the senior class who broke the tradition and that they could no longer anticipate Hill Day.

Perhaps some feel Mr. Tutwiler has not been here long enough to make such a dramatic change to our school; after all, he has only seen one Hill Day. His concern about our safety and education is in good faith; however, was the choice of totally destroying a tradition a wise move? Most of the school probably sees Hill Day as a fun, joyous celebration of freedom for the seniors. We have enjoyed crowding together outside the buildings to watch the seniors pass by in all their craziness; it’s entertaining, and it bonds the underclassmen together as the remaining high school community when we share our laughter over the ridiculous things seniors do as they pass by and when we tell each other our stories about past Hill Days or our aspirations for our own celebration. School’s not all about studying, and though, of course, teachers and staff members know that, the kind of “fun” that we find in Winter Week or similarly planned events isn’t the same kind that surrounds Hill Day. What’s so appealing about this tradition is what it represents. It’s a celebration of our freedom from what many probably consider to be years of educational suffering, and that unconstrained sense of happiness and independence is reflected in the run down the hill; on that last day, seniors believe they’ve become mature enough that the school should trust them in making their decision to continue that tradition. Many might even see it as something high school owes them for all the rules and stress they’ve endured.

What’s to become of Hill Day, whether it is replaced, attempted, or abandoned altogether as a celebration of finally making it through the high school years, is in the hands of the students. There’s no doubt that this issue will be brought up again, though it could possibly come as late as in May. If a tradition is going to take the place of Hill Day, we can expect the student body to accept it only if it encompasses the same ideas and meaning that our beloved Hill Day did.