The myth of Miss Fortune is a tragic and historic part of Park High School. The legend goes that back in the 1930s, the cheer captain who was dating a football player took her own life after he broke up with her. The cheer captain’s ghost comes back during homecoming to create chaos and to put graffiti around the school. This has been a popular tradition at Park for a long time, but is it time for this tradition to change?

In the 1930s, when Miss Fortune sprung up, mentally ill people were still being treated with things such as electroshock therapy, isolation, and other horrible treatments. To continue a homecoming tradition based on a person’s mental health struggles can create a harmful environment. What does this say to students who are struggling with mental health issues (or have loved ones who are) and there is a joke, every year when homecoming season comes around, about someone who killed themselves?

Now in 2022, this tradition is outdated, problematic, and harmful. It’s finally time to change this tradition to something that all the students at Park can enjoy. Instead of having a tradition that makes a joke at the expense of people struggling with mental health, Park should have a tradition that everyone can take pride in.