Health and P.E. Department Claims Victory in Costume Contest Between Teaching Departments

This Halloween, Thursday, Oct. 31, the Independence teaching departments competed in a group costume contest, in which the Health and Physical Education (HPE) department won; the world languages department was close behind them in second place. 

The HPE  department won a trophy as their prize. The departments had to coordinate their costumes and dress up in themes. Some of the more notable themes included the Career and Technical Education (CTE) department dressed as characters from the board game Clue, the math department dressed as characters from Scooby-Doo, and the social sciences department dressed as the Salem Witch trials.

The winner was determined by a student vote through Google forms throughout the day until 3:30 PM, when the HPE department was announced as the winner. They were costumed as the Average Joes from the 2004 movie DodgeBall.

“I actually came up with the idea for our costumes,” said Ms. Madisyn Graham, one of the HPE teachers. “I just wanted something funny and on-brand for us as P.E. teachers, and honestly it was very last minute, but they all thought it was funny as well, so yeah, we rolled with it. It felt like a million bucks to win. I made the shirts the night of and Coach [Ann] Vierkorn spent hours on the jackets. It was really great.” 

Señora Ruth Rosario-Perez, a Spanish teacher from the world languages department, explained, “Our department chair chose the Hydro Flask costume theme about a week ahead of Halloween, so that we’d have time to order our shirts and stickers and such. We had the idea that our costumes would be good because it’s a kind of joke that you kids have with each other.” 

Lindsey Perdue, a social science teacher currently teaching AP U.S. History, commented on why it was fun participating. “Our costumes were content-related, seeing as we teach the Salem Witch Trials, and it was cool showing that off and seeing the other departments’ costumes too. It was just a nice event to take part of, and we enjoyed it.”