After a triumphant win at Regionals, Lafayette’s speech team was excited for Super-Regionals! That’s when the news was broken to the students. The LHS Choir was singing at the 250 Years of America Celebration the same day as speech Super-Regionals. This caused a divide between the fine arts department. Students were going to have to choose between Choir and Speech, because both are happening on the same day at the same time.
Most people think that this is a simple decision. If you made it onto the VHSL Team, you should choose speech in a heartbeat, but there is more to it than just that. The choir assessment counts as a test grade and has been on the calendar since October. So, the main argument is “Are students willing to take the zero in choir dropping their grade to a D for the quarter, or do they risk giving up their spot as a state champion?”. There were 17 students that made the VHSL team, 8 of these students being in choir.
Now it was up to the students to make a choice between the two, and they knew they would be letting down their teacher and other students. This caused the Fine Arts department to have a meeting about scheduling and future events. The teachers met together in order to prevent this from happening in the future, so students do not have to choose between a class grade and a Super-Regional tournament.
Finally, the weekend arrived, 5 out of the 8 students chose Choir over Speech, and 3 students took the zero-assessment grade. The Speech team ended up doing well with only 12 students. They got Runner-Up overall, and 8 out of 12 students got a medal! The LHS Choir did fabulous as well, singing the song “Homeland” by Gustav Holst, a song that focuses on the themes of national love, sacrifice, and heritage. Though the decision was tough, both of the fine arts departments ended up thriving under rough circumstances.
