“This is… OUR HOUSE,” has echoed through the gym during sports rallies since the “Uni” days. A friendly competition to decide who can cheer the loudest is held between classes.

At the rally today, Associated Student Body Executive President Matthew Elliott ’16 prompted the freshmen to cheer, then the sophomores, but when he moved on to the juniors, something unexpected happened.

Going along with the feud that emerged from the Fall Rally earlier this year, the seniors turned their backs on the juniors as they prepared to chant. Disregarding the “Our House” tradition altogether, about half of the juniors leaped from the bleachers and ran across the gym floor.

Ripping off shirts, chucking shoes, and throwing cocoa powder, the juniors charged toward the Class of 2016. As made evident by the reaction of Cathedral Catholic High School administrators and many students, the juniors had overstepped their bounds.

The intense competition at the rallies lately is something the CCHS community has never seen before, or at least not for a long time. The “friendly competition” of the “Our House” chant has been tainted, and the division between the junior and senior classes could be felt and heard throughout the gym.

The definition of “rally,” according to Merriam-Webster dictionary, is “to come together again to renew an effort” or, “to join in a common cause.” The juniors and seniors may have come together for civil war in the middle of the gym floor, but that is not what rallies are supposed to achieve. Pause your reading for a moment and listen to “Come Together” by the Beatles. There it is. That’s the kind we want.

There is another definition that the junior class, in particular, seems to have forgotten: “a privileged status attained by length of continuous service.” This is the definition of “seniority.” Seniors have seniority over the younger classes simply because we’ve been in high school for the longest amount of time. Seniority is the reason the senior class has special privileges.

“There are lots of senior privileges on campus, such as wearing college sweatshirts or a senior line to buy lunch,” Brandon Blischak ’16 said. “It’s a product not only of having been at the school the longest, but also putting up with three previous classes of seniors exercising the same privileges. It’s a rite of passage, something to look forward to for your senior year.”

The juniors need to understand that the seniors attained seniority by moving into the 12th grade. Seniority is not achieved by “showing up” those students older than us before our time has come, as the juniors seem to think based on their actions at the rally. Juniors: your time will come. You are nearly there.

That being said, the seniors need to maintain their seniority. There is a reason seniors are not granted privileges on the first day of senior year. We have to earn them by proving ourselves as mature, respectful, responsible individuals. If we messed up, showing the administration we don’t embody those qualities, we would not have gotten our privileges. Why should we act any differently at the rallies?

“Part of being the oldest class on campus is being the most mature and setting the best example for the rest of the school,” Blischak said.

The seniors may have been provoked by the juniors, but as the saying goes, they shouldn’t get down to “roll in the mud.” I believe the saying comes from this quote said by George Bernard Shaw: “I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.”

Rushing the gym floor is rolling in the mud. Come on, seniors. Show the underclassmen and juniors what we’ve learned, and who we’ve become after four whole years at CCHS. We need to demonstrate that we are leaders and bring the school together as one.

“Maybe we’ll find that all being Dons is better than being seniors or juniors,” Ben Fischer ’16 said.

After all, this is Our House.