Isaiah Dantzler wants to start a student government system at Mission High School.
“This is the first time there’s been an election at Mission,” said Isaiah, who talked to Mr. Velez. This system means that students elect someone from their grade for Secretary, President, Historian, Vice-President, and Treasurer. Running for these positions is open to all grades. Voting will be taking place in front of the auditorium Friday 9/20. Voting will be done by paper ballot and the decisions will be announced a week later, the last week of September.
This system will be in place of Mission Leadership, a student-led group that was made up of club leaders and other students who were interested in helping plan school-wide events. Mission Leadership also helped schedule assemblies that clubs hold, like BSU celebrating Black History Month or API celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Isaiah wanted to start up student government because “Leadership didn’t really spread information all that well, and since people wouldn’t be informed about what was taking place, the school spirit at Mission isn’t really big.”
Isaiah hopes that through student government, students will find more fun in voting for a president and all other school activities the student government will plan in the future.
Some Mission students and staff believe that starting a student government system would be beneficial to the school.
“I think that we’ve been without a student government or an official student government for several years and I think every school should have a student government where students’ voices really are heard and present,” said Ms. Rodriguez, faculty advisor to OLE, a Latinx student club.
“I like it; I think it’s a good way for students to express themselves,” said Zora Wolf, 11th grader at Mission. “I feel it’s supporting student requests.”
“It is not up to me how we run this, but if students are asking for a more formal student government then I’m here to support,” Ms.Wilson, 10th grade counselor added.
Others, while still supporting the idea of a student government, were confused and had questions about how this system would work and what would happen to Mission Leadership.
“In the beginning I had my doubts cause instead of using leadership as like a segue into government, he like cut it off abruptly and then started government from the ground. I thought that wasn’t the most efficient way to start a government because most of the people that were in leadership are the people you would want running for [the school’s] government because they’re the ones stepping up, and by cutting it off and starting government, that definitely created a divide between the two,” 11th grader Brandon Drawn.
Time will tell if the student government will be successful in what they’re trying to accomplish and if students will be happy with the new system.
