High Five Friday increases chances of spreading sickness

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Kayleigh Walters, Reporter

High Five Friday is a new tradition that began this year where sports teams stand outside the commons and give students high fives as they walk into the building, but it might not be the healthiest way to raise school spirit.

Rebecca Herendeen’s microbiology class conducted an experiment on a cheerleader’s hand after one High Five Friday to see how many germs would be present.  Her class swabbed the hand of a cheerleader and looked at it under a microscope.  The results showed a lot of germs on the cheerleader’s hand, which was expected.  Herendeen said, “This should encourage everybody to wash their hands.”  Some students may not want to participate in High Hive Friday after seeing the video.

The purpose of High Five Friday is to start the day out on a positive note.  Many students thought it was a great idea when it first started, but now think it just causes more students to get sick from all of the germs. When the seasons change, more students will become sick because of it being cold and allergy season.  School Nurse, Carol Madden, said “High Five Friday definitely affects the number of students getting sick because if someone just sneezed or coughed right before, then there will be a lot of germs being spread.”  

The Cross Country team was the first team to do High Five Friday after the video was shown on the news.  Cross Country Runner, Dannie Hoover, said, “I actually wore gloves on purpose Friday, so I wasn’t touching a whole bunch of people, and even then I washed my hands after because I didn’t want to get sick.”

 After seeing the video shown on the news, students are making  prudent decisions about their health and don’t want to get sick.