by Emmett Ansari
Students annually vote in student council elections, giving them some sense of representation in the school and decisions about the district. During the weeks leading up to the election, each candidate campaigns, attempting to stand out and persuade voters.
The elections appear to have the possibility to shape the high school experience. However, the student government employs little influence over consequential school issues. The Student Council cannot create much change. They help run Color Wars and other school events, but in terms of physical change, the Student Council has not been able to be impactful daily. In this way, voting for the student government is voting without consequence. When representatives lack the authority to create and innovate properly, the elections become seemingly pointless.
The majority of students are uninformed about the power of the student council. It may be ordinary to hear the classic “I will be your voice” or the “I care about your issues” during campaigns, but this language vanishes when it is time to govern. This is not because the student government turns ambitious candidates into uncaring and isolated people. Rather, it shows that they are not capable of acting on the concerns they promised to fix. Still, the lack of transparency means there is no way for voters to know if their representatives are working for them.
Charlie Nadler, a freshman, said, “Yes, they do have power, but a very small amount.” He also said, “They have the ability to give ideas and be heard, but ultimately the administration is the one that makes the decisions.”
Democracy is more than voting; it is about trusting and giving power to members of the community. Irvington High School has not given this trust to the student council, leading to a weak student government. The student government needs the resources to form its own coherent choices, as we do not have a government that legitimately represents the student body.
We need a real government because students must be integrated into a system of self-determination. Students need a path to provide what they want to be implemented. The student government is meant to encourage student activism, and it can do so if the activism and opinions of students are considered valid. At the moment, no voice is coming from the student body.
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