The Palo Alto High School Associated Student Body will perform a recount of Spirit Week points following widespread student outcry, according to ASB Sports Commissioner Shannon Scheel.

“On Thursday the sophomores were 400 points behind the seniors,” Scheel said. “Then the judges awarded the sophomores first place in float and first place in spirit dance. But the general consensus of the student population and the ASB population was that juniors won spirit dance and that seniors won float. The Spirit Commissioners are going to reevaluate the point distribution.”

Another ASB officer confirmed that a recount is underway, but wished to remain anonymous.

Student complaints and discussions about the current Spirit Week tallies flooded Facebook and Twitter after the sophomore class surged from third to first place in one day. Many were puzzled as to how the sophomores earned such a sudden influx of points.

“The total of each day’s rallies don’t even add up to how many points the sophomores got through just one rally with the spirit dances and floats,” senior Justin Wang said. “It just seems unfair.”

Junior Aldis Petriceks shared Wang’s sentiment, but noted that students shouldn’t take Spirit Week points so seriously.

“While I personally feel incredibly confused and surprised as to how the sophomores won, I don’t really have any hard feelings considering Spirit Week shoudn’t be taken as seriously as it is,” Petriceks said.

The sophomores currently have a total of 2442.5 points, according to the ASB Facebook page. Seniors and juniors both trail 150 points behind at 2292.5, and the freshmen are in fourth place with 1047.5 points. Sophomores had 527.5 points on Thursday.

Other students called for a more transparent point-awarding process, complaining that the current system is largely unknown to outsiders.

“ASB should be more transparent,” senior Marissa Heirich said. “It would dissolve this illusion of cheating and rigging once and for all. People are getting so hot and bothered over something as trivial as ‘miscalculated’ points and it’s bringing out the worst in people.”

Senior Bryan Burton echoed Heirich’s suggestion.

“I have no clue how Spirit Week points are determined,” Burton said. “I think it’s 100, 75, 50, 25 per competition, but there are lots of random points that seem to get thrown in or deducted. If we were allowed to see how the points are added up then maybe that will make the student body happier.”

Though happy with the current score tallies, sophomore Julia Kwasnick acknowledged that some points seem to spontaneously appear.

“I was really proud to see we [the sophomores] did so well this year,” Kwasnick said. “I think the results are kind of hilarious because the sophomores have never won Spirit Week, but I don’t think we have a good chance of the results staying because the seniors are going to get some random magical points that make them win.”

Stay tuned to The Paly Voice for new developments.