Assistant Principal Richard Sabatier: “I guess a chance to spend time with my wife. um We’ll go out, go get dinner, maybe watch a movie at home. We’re doing those things normally, so it’s not like it’s the only time we do those things, but I guess it’s just, I don’t know, another holiday.”

math teacher Yasmine Secrist: “I celebrate Valentine’s Day just because it’s like an extra special day to show love to your significant other or even my family and friends, because I still get little gifts for my siblings and my mom as well.”

librarian Chelsea Hamilton: “I think that it is important to show love to the people in your family and friends and anybody that you love.”

English teacher Jennifer Herrera: “For me, Valentine’s Day has always been more about, um like my kids. I think because when I started teaching kindergarten like a million years ago, I always made a big deal with my little kindergarteners. So it wasn’t always, um so much a romantic holiday for me, but just an expression of love to anybody. And now, as a mom, I tend to treat Valentine’s Day more as, again, an expression of love for my kids. um they usually wake up and have a little, you know, they get a little surprise treat. um My husband and I have a nice dinner, but we don’t make a big deal of it. We don’t buy cards or waste our money on anything silly because we try to do that throughout the year, but yeah, for me, we celebrate it, but it’s more just any kind of love, not necessarily romantic.”

senior Staleigh Lilley: “I celebrate Valentine’s Day because it is a time to show my appreciation to the friends that are closest to me.”

junior Samantha Deshetler: “Because I have a girlfriend.”

junior Cali Pereira: “Because Valentine’s Day is a day of love and your loved ones need to be remembered. I mean, celebrated.”

sophomore Danivea Hughes: “I celebrate Valentine’s Day because it makes me show how much I care about my friends. Like I typically celebrate it for my friends and like, not really for relationships, but um I celebrated for my friends and it just shows how much I love them and care for them.”

freshman Rohan Advani: “I don’t really celebrate it because there’s not really anyone I have to celebrate it with.”

Sabatier: “I mean, you know, any chance to tell the person that you love and care about them to remind them of that, I think is nice. I don’t think that should be the only time you’re telling that person that the only time you’re doing nice things for them that it’s a reminder, I suppose.”

Secrist: “I feel like it’s important to celebrate Valentine’s Day because we get so busy with the day to day in life that sometimes we forget to show appreciation and love to those that we care about in our lives. So it’s a special day to just focus on love and not to like day to day.”

Hamilton: “I think that it is important across the board, not just on Valentine’s Day, but any day to show that you love and you care for the people around you.”

Herrera: “I don’t know that I think it’s important to celebrate it. I just think it’s important to show love as often as you can throughout the year, I don’t necessarily think we need a specific day. um but it’s fun, and it’s just another reason to celebrate and wear pink or red and eat chocolate, so I guess it’s just kind of a silly little fun way to kind of set aside time to specifically show and tell people we love them. And if you didn’t have your family and stuff to celebrate with.”

Lilley: “I think it’s important to celebrate Valentine’s Day because it’s a good way to show love and grow relationships.”

Samantha Deshetler: “so that the people that you love know that they’re important to you.”

Hughes: “Because everyone should feel love, yes, love all the time, but on Valentine’s Day, it’s emphasized so much more and like, it just paid more attention. “

Advani: “Um, I think it’s important to celebrate Valentine’s Day because, um, it’s a day to celebrate your loved ones and the special person in your life.”

Richard Sabatier: “We just try and spend time together in some way, you know, go out to eat or something.”

Yasmine Secrist: “I do not have any traditions, but if my mom does not give me a gift, I’ll be very upset. That’s like my one tradition.”

Chelsea Hamilton: “ When I was growing up, my dad every year for Valentine’s Day would buy me a chocolate rose.”

Jennifer Herrera: “Not really.”

Caleb Torres: “I do not, no.”

Staleigh Lilley: “I usually have a Galentine’s Day party with my closest friends and we eat a bunch of chocolate and watch romantic movies and cry.”

Samantha Deshetler: “So this is actually my first Valentine’s Day I’m celebrating, so no.”

Cali Pereira: “No, because I’ve been single for every other Valentine’s Day in my life.”

Danivea Hughes: “Um, no, my mommy normally is my valentine, so she gets me a little basket and Chick-fil-A and whatnot”

Rohan Advani: “I don’t.”

Richard Sabatier: “Just going out to dinner and spending time together, we might watch a movie or something.”

Yasmine Secrist: “So usually my fiancé and I usually go to dinner and then we’ll go out that night, but this year, since we’re trying to like to save for a house, I’m going to cook him dinner at home and he’s requested jerk chicken, rice and peas and greens. So that half day is great for us.”

Chelsea Hamilton: “My husband and my kids, so my husband and I usually, if we buy each other anything, we try to do a theme. um, like one year it was something that was like anything of a certain color. under, you know, a price range. And then for my kids, I usually get them. I’ll make them a little card and I’ll get them a little snack.”

Caleb Torres: “We usually go out to eat. uh she has specific restaurants that she likes, uh like Texas roadhouse, so I’m sure we’ll be at Texas roadhouse.”

Samantha Deshetler: “I’m gonna decorate her room, right with the flowers , and then I have like a list of the things she wants, like candles, face masks, all of that. and so when I decorate it, it’s gonna have a gift bag with flowers.”

Cali Pereira: “I don’t know, she’s planning it.” 

Danivea Hughes: “Um, probably just with my friends. I could just go hang out with them and like to hang out with my mom because I love my mommy.”

Rohan Advani: “Oh, I would probably go out with a special person in my life, maybe go out to dinner or do something special for them. “

Yasmine Secrist: “ I do think if I didn’t have my fiancé Valentine’s Day would still be meaningful because being raised by a single mom, she always made us feel really loved and appreciate on that day, so I think I would still show it to my family even if I didn’t have a significant other.”

Chelsea Hamilton: “I think it’s always a good time to, you know, tell your friends that you care about them. I mean, my friends and I every year will always, you know, tell each other happy Valentine’s Day and we miss each other and it’s, you know, obviously as we get older, we haven’t seen each other in like four years, but we still talk almost every day.”

Jennifer Herrera: “Probably not, to be honest. I mean, I would like to say that I would treat myself to something special or take myself out, but I don’t know that I would really need to celebrate the day if it wasn’t about relationships with other people”

Caleb Torres: “No.”

Samantha Deshetler: “Yeah, because I would go around asking people to go through each other’s phones.”

Cali Pereira: “No. waste of time.”

Staleigh Lilley: “I think it would definitely be an advantage, but I don’t think it would be more important. I think it is just as important to celebrate it with your closest friends.”

Danivea Hughes: “Um, yes, but no, because I would make sure that that person feels loved all the time and not just on one day.”

Rohan Advani: “Because it gives an opportunity to celebrate the person you love and the special person in your life.”