By Shirley Zavala and Jose Mendoza
Student council provides an opportunity for students in high school to gain leadership skills and experience which they can use later on in life. For the longest time, student council has been exclusively open to seniors at APB, but some are questioning whether or not it is time to let other grade levels participate as is common in many other high schools around the country.
For student’s looking to be a part of student council they must follow very specific guidelines.
They must apply second semester of their junior year and answer a set of questions thoroughly to ensure they are well suited for the role.
We asked Ms. Paulinogous, the head of the student council class, whether student council should be open to other grade levels or just seniors.
She said, “I would be open to student council being juniors and seniors. I think there’s a lot of learning that happens in the class. It takes a while to figure out like personalities and organization and general interest. This class there’s certain things that were into and that were not into but in different years that might change. There’s a benefit of student starting earlier possibly as a junior and learning and by the time they are seniors having a better sense of how the class runs. I would be willing to take any student I felt that would be a good fit for the class, if they are willing to do the work and I interviewed them and went through the process and beat out anyone older than them, I would definitely happy and willing to open it up to different students.”
Ms. Paulinogous believes anyone who is capable of being responsible can definitely be accepted into student council because different grade levels can provide different ideas and aspects to the student council class.
But some students and teachers believe that student council should continue to be only for seniors.
Ms. Edelman said,“Better for all seniors. It’s a lot of responsibility. Keeping it as a senior activity it ensures that we have the upperclassmen, most responsible students as our school leaders.”
Just like Ms.Edelman a junior Stephanie Valdez say, “I feel like more to senior because seniors are more mature than maybe freshmen and sophomores would be.”
In short, some people believe student council should be open to only seniors because they believe they are more mature and capable of being responsible leaders for student council.
But there’s also students who believe that student council should be opened to all grade levels.
Senior Jorge Melendez says,“I think it should but next year” when asked if all grade levels should be eligible. “It gives the opportunity for the other grades to express how they feel and have more involvement.”
For now, it seems like student council will remain the same. Yes, other grade levels can have different perspectives surrounding school activities to make everyone feel included, but they also need time to mature before they are given free rein to do what they want in student council.
