At the pep rally last Friday, the girls soccer team created quite a controversy: several seniors on the squad “walked” underclassmen on leashes, like dogs.

As opposed to the intended laughs, the act instead invoked only a few chuckles, while others were simply confused.

There were many students and faculty, however, who were deeply offended, demanding that the players who organized the brigade be reprimanded. There were even rumors regarding potential school suspensions (in reality, the lone punishment was a one game suspension for six players), as well as declarations of outright sexism.

And I think those notions are completely ridiculous.

Yes, it would have been smarter for the team to perform something a little more PG rated, and follow the protocol of clearing their choreography with Athletic Director Marty Lisevick, and their head coach, Heather Driscoll. After all, hindsight is always 20-20, as the cliché goes.

But to accuse the seniors of sexism is out of line. When were women ever walked on leashes? In my opinion, the team clearly did not intend to undermine any portion of the long fight women went through for gender equality, nor did they hint at times prior to it.

Everyone needs to take a step back and have a little perspective. The lone point of the pep rally is to get the students excited for Homecoming, not to make controversial statements about society.

And oh by the way, the people holding the leashes were women, the same women who collectively organized the skit.

Furthermore, there were no feigned instances of abuse, physical or sexual, in any way; that definitely would have crossed many boundaries.

Another issue that people were concerned about was the idea that the freshmen were being hazed. They crawled on their knees for about 20 feet. That’s not hazing. Hazing involves cruel, illegal activity, (outlined in the documentary, “Haze,”), of which there was none.

The idea of senior superiority is expressed during pep rallies every year. Seniors are typically in the front row, acting as the main focuses of the audience’s attention. This is their final pep rally; they’ve waited in the wings for several years, and now finally get to call the shots and star. It was no coincidence that the leads from both the football and the boys cross country teams’ performances were seniors.

Besides, if you ask the entire student body, I’m quite confident that they, like me, will say they had a bigger problem with the water polo team walking around in speedos.