As the spirit of Valentine’s Day comes to a close, English teacher Mary Bell announced today during lunch the winners of this year’s Baaaaad Valentine’s Day Poem Contest.

25 finalists were announced, along with a top three. All three students had Bell, who required her students to submit a poem, as a teacher.

Virginia French (’18) took third place.

“My poem was about a busy student that has to much work to have a life,” said French.

Although French did not think it would win, she said she put a lot of thought into writing it and had fun doing so.

Brendan Davis (’18) came in second.

“I was more than a bit surprised. My poem was a haiku about looks how a person will leave once their looks end. My friends and I were talking in band and were brainstorming something for me to write about,” said Davis. “It was fun to write and I would do it again next year.”

The first place spot went to Reid Howard (’16).

“I put a lot of hard work into the poems that I submitted, and to get recognition for it was a really gratifying feeling… I wrote about two lovers… it starts out really romantic and then it gets ridiculously absurd and kind of stupid,” Howard said.