As kids head back to school tomorrow, freshmen at Aberdeen High School may find the first day a little less daunting.
During the summer, more than 100 incoming ninth graders got a look at the school, the upperclassmen and their peers, when they participated in the school's first freshman field day.
With more than 400 new freshmen expected to attend the school this year, the event was part of a multipronged approach to improve freshman transition, said Lesley Taylor, a teacher at the school.
"Field day was initiated to help build greater relationships within the incoming class," Taylor said. "The first week of school can be very difficult."
Activities galore
Activities offered during the field day included jump-roping, Latin dancing, sponge relays, watermelon seed spitting and face painting. The event was started to help alleviate some of the fears of incoming freshmen, with tours of the school, and fun, bonding activities, said Valerie Cooper, assistant principal of Aberdeen High School.
"For many of the kids, this is their first time on campus, and we want it to be a positive experience," Cooper said. "We hope that being here today will help these students get acclimated to the building, and each other."
School administrators have always been concerned with making the transition during a student's first year easier, said Tom Szerensits, principal of the school for the past six years. Students come to high school concerned about being teased, academics, getting lost or being late to class, he said.
"We have a large building, and it can be somewhat overwhelming," Szerensits said. "We wanted to do something to make things easier for freshmen by allowing them to meet their teachers and some of the kids they will go to school with this year."
During the event, some of the older students let the freshmen take their best shots.
Brittany Santos, a sophomore, donned a large black trash bag, and then stood in front of some teenagers who had gathered on the sidelines of the football field at Aberdeen High.
Next to her Christine Cox, also a sophomore, squirted whipped cream into foil pie tins, and handed them to kids to throw at her classmate. Santos closed her eyes as pie after pie flew at her face.
"Getting a pie in the face is just my way of doing something to help put the freshmen at ease," said Santos, who used her fingers as a brush to get the cream out of her thick, red hair.
