The Football State Championship game kicks off tonight at 7:15 p.m. in Lincoln. If the game takes a little more than two and a half hours, it ends around 10 p.m. Add half an hour for possible celebration, and the exit time from memorial stadium is 10:30 p.m. Forty five minute drive home makes it 11:15 p.m, just in time to get six to seven hours of sleep for the next day at school, assuming there is no homework to do.

Last Wednesday in a Senior Project class mod, a teacher asked the students if they planned on attending school the day after the championship game. Few raised their hands. Near the end of the mod, the idea of creating a petition was brought forward, to see how many students supported the cancellation of school the Wednesday after the game. Senior Nika Longe started the petition with her classmates.

“I sent it to [my teacher] before I sent it to anyone else,” Longe said.

The petition went viral, being sent around Westside’s computers through the first class webmail system. By 2 p.m. the site was blocked on Westside students’ computers.

“The blocking happened because of some of the inappropriate names and the inappropriate comments,” Principal Maryanne Ricketts said. “Nobody had a problem with the petition itself.”

Currently, over 1,300 signatures have been acquired on the online petition, though some names on the petition are fake.

“If it is becoming inappropriate then they have to block it,” junior Max Slosburg said. “I think there is a misconception that it is being blocked in fear that the petition might work.”

Underlying the actual petition is the sentiment of Westside students regarding their attendance next Wednesday.

“It’s not that I don’t want school, it is more-so that people aren’t going to come… whether they cancel [school] or not,” Longe said. “The petition is a representation of the people who aren’t planning on coming [to school Wednesday].”

“It is a decision that students and parents can make whether students come to school Wednesday,” Ricketts said. “I would hope, again, especially if we win, what a great way to celebrate on Wednesday that we are all here and can congratulate the players and congratulate the coaches.”

The administration is not planning on school being canceled next Wednesday because of the football game.

“It’s going to be tough on everyone,” Ricketts said. “We’re glad everyone is excited about the game. Hopefully we will have a lot of students there, but we need to know that we’ll be here on Wednesday.”