Seniors can order yearbooks, dance tickets and senior swag during registration. It’s a lot of cash, but ASB bundles items so there’s a discount, and many seniors figure, “Hey, it’s senior year. It’s worth it.” However, for some seniors, the Class of 2023 sweatshirts distributed in late August were not worth it.

In fact, the sweatshirts were insulting if not outright hurtful.

By using the school’s Aeries system to list every senior’s name, ASB inadvertently published names that some students no longer identify with. Thus instead of the names that students wanted being immortalized on their sweatshirts, the sweatshirts deadnamed students.

To fix the problem, principal Laura Rubio and assistant principal Marcene Guerrero invited parents and students to submit through email revised names. The school officials are working with ASB to print new sweatshirts.

“From all ASB and myself, we apologize,” said ASB president Declan Campbell. “It’s not our goal to ever exclude anyone on campus or make anyone feel not welcomed here.” The Tribe Tribune appreciates the apology.

But why print new sweatshirts just to change the names when other things could also be changed? Instead, we want ASB and school officials to overhaul the senior sweatshirt.

First, there’s the message. The phrase “I just want to be done done done” may resonate with seniors, but the Tribe Tribune would prefer a message of camaraderie or hope rather than it looking as if the FUHS Class of 2023 is about to be released from prison.

We recommend a positive message. Given the state of the world, even something bland like “The future is ours” or “Nothing can stop us now” will likely be ironic enough in just a few months.

However, if the message is kept, can the phrase “I just” be moved a little to the left? There’s a real problem with “just” running too close to the image’s ear so that it looks like the nonsense word “justh” and once you see it you can’t unsee it.

Second, while the Tribe Tribune applauds the use of the school’s geographical coordinates along the sweatshirt’s shoulders, the coordinates are presented without commentary or context. As only social studies teachers and geocachers actually use coordinates, some students found this baffling.

Finally, some students were confused by this:

And they’re allowed to be confused. Fear of 2023 is an obscure reference to high-end fashion brand Fear of God, but many seniors thought that it was misspelled and was supposed to be Year of 2023 (which, honestly, isn’t much better). We suggest replacing this cryptic pronouncement with the name of our school. You may know where you got the sweatshirt from, but nobody else will without the school’s name on it somewhere.

The Tribe Tribune would like to point out that the senior hoodie is in stark contrast to the elegant positivity of the senior T-shirt.

It’s not complicated, and it’s fun.

And that’s really all we need from a senior sweatshirt. The present design hurts students with its deadnaming, but it’s also an objectively negative and often confusing piece of art. In the future, ASB should consider asking for help. Our campus is full of amazing student artists who might be able to design something fun, positive and inclusive.