Recently, the morning announcements have been plagued with activities being shut down or changed because of the lack of participation. Just this semester, according to senior Ana-Teresa Mendoza, the ASB president, the “Mr. Middle College” event has been cancelled due to not having enough participants. She also mentioned that over the course of her four years at Middle College High School she has witnessed a decrease in participation. So, why the decrease?

Mendoza said that she tried to spark more participation in students with more events and nooners, but as sophomore Max Rodriguez commented, not many students want to volunteer to participate in nooners, and he felt the participation got worse in certain grade levels. Rodriguez said, “During the activities in the quad I rarely see anyone go up. I feel as though the higher the grade level, the less they participate.”

Senior Alan Meza said that he went to one dance last year when he was dragged there by friends. The reason he believes people don’t go to dances is that they’re mostly the same each year. Meza said, “It’s routine. Sadies is always at David & Busters; they use the same venue.”

Senior Bryan Rodriguez said that he believes that the reason people are not participating in school-run events and activities is that the news doesn’t get around. He said, “I feel like they’re not as energetic… one or two people go around asking people … not involved just announcing.” Rodriguez mentioned that the amount of participation was “definitely different” in the past. When asked if he felt that there was a difference in people attending the dance before this year, he said, “I definitely feel like more people went to dances before.”

According to ASB advisor Mr. Ramos, there has been a definite decrease in ticket sales from last year to this year. During the 2017-2018 school year, 110 people attended the Halloween Dance, 95 attended Winter Formal, 90 attend Sadie Hawkins, and 75 attended Prom. During the 2018-2019 school year, 105 students bought tickets to the Halloween Dance and 61 attended Winter Formal.

Alan Meza and Bryan Rodriguez both mentioned that they believed that participation was going to keep going down because of the groups people have divided themselves into. Meza said, “ I think participation is gonna decrease more because a lot of people are in groups and they are not going to things.”