Foothill’s Associated Student Body (ASB) announced on Wednesday a new type of Renaissance Rally with the tagline, “If life gives you lemons, have a lemon festival!”

The change, which will eliminate many traditional Renaissance Rally activities, was necessary due to new regulations from the California State Parent and Teacher Association (CAPTA).

The organization’s regulations for each school come in the form of a “green light, yellow light, red light” chart. Green light refers to things approved to do on campus, yellow light referring to activities that need additional insurance and approval from the district, and red light referring to activities that are prohibited under all circumstances. 

Many of the activities previously enjoyed by students and teachers at the festivals have moved from green light to red light.

“The old carnivals with jolly jumps and all that stuff is banned, so we can’t do that even if we wanted to, so we’re just trying to find something that would be new and fun while still fitting with the regulations,” said ASB member and senior James Florez.

The PTA lists are based upon number of injuries and problems reported to the district from the carnivals. The reports go up the chain of command to the state officials in charge of the guidelines. 

“For example, last year when we had the carnival in October we had somebody break a thumb, and another person hurt their finger,” said ASB advisor Melanie “Captain” Lindsey. “We had two injuries in two years on the bungee run, which probably contributed to the moving of that item from one list to another.”

The bungee run, jolly jumpers, dunk tanks, and the Velcro wall are all now in the “red light” category this year. This will drastically change the school carnivals.

Due to these new regulations a new carnival scheduled for Oct. 3 has been created called the “Lemon Festival.” It will be similar to the Avocado Festival and Strawberry Festival in Oxnard.

“It’s gonna be kind of like the food fair in that we divided ASB into groups of four and each group is going to be doing an activity and a lemon based food item. On top of that we’re trying to get some larger activities,” Lindsey said.

Some of the activities ASB is looking into are a rock wall, DJ, and photo booth.

To participate and get food, students will need tickets. Each activity will most likely take one or two tickets, which students were given out based on their level of Renaissance: 20 for Platinum, 15 for Gold, ten for silver, and five for red.

Freshman will not initially be given tickets due to the fact that they do not yet have Renaissance cards or previous semester grades from Foothill.

In addition to the assigned number of tickets, students can earn tickets at their teachers’ leisure. Freshman will be able to get tickets from this method.

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Some students said they will miss the old carnivals, but understand why they are no longer possible, and are open to the new ideas.

“I understand they are not able to do a lot of the stuff they were able to do before. I get that they’re left with lemons. I’m waiting to see what they’ve come up with that’s lemon themed,” senior Kiley Becker said.

Edited: September 22, 2014 7:50 pm