By Brecklyn Carey

A range of people from student to parents gathered around the flagpole at the Atlantic High School on the morning of Sept. 25. According to event organizers, people met from 7 to 8 a.m. to “ lift up their friends, families, teachers, school, and nation to God.” The group sang songs, circled up and held hands, listened to a story and then sang again. Some people joined and left, some wandered in on curiosity and never strayed. Students cried, adults laughed, but all of those attending shared a common bond.

See You At The Pole (SYATP) is a “student-initiated, student-organized, and student-led” opportunity for Christians to gather for prayer, according to SYATP.com. Atlantic students did just that at AHS and AMS. Approximately 20 people joined in on the activity, ranging from high schoolers to parents and youth leaders.

At the high school, sophomore Corgan Peterson led music worship, and sophomore William Weppler led the service. The lesson taught was from Matthew 7:24-27; Weppler taught a metaphor that your life is a house: if you live your life through the teachings of God, your house will be made of stone that cannot be broken or cracked. Weppler said if you just say you are living through God, yet are not actually taking action to show you are true in your faith, your house will crumble and fall. Weppler taught the lesson “to say that you need to build on God rather than greed or good grades.”  Junior Turner Russell said, “See You at the Pole is a great way to publicly share your faith with others and I think that it was a really good experience.”

However, not all students gained a fully positive response from their SYATP experience. Two students received hour-long detentions, and another was required to run laps because they stayed at the flagpole after early morning band rehearsal had started.

Band director Jarrod O’Donnell explained that the students were punished for being late to band, not for practicing their religious beliefs. “The problem was that the students didn’t ask beforehand, so they were tardy. We are working towards (early morning band) actually counting as a class. It was not so much that they were tardy, or why they were tardy, just they were gone for my class.”

SYATP is a annual event, and several students who were at the event this year are already planning on the event for next year.