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THE LITTLE HAWK | THELITTLEHAWK.COM | FEBRUARY 16th, 2018
Student Senate Preambles Through Constitutional Convention
Spurred on by debate about the attendance policy, Student Senate made a series of constitutional rewrites
Best Buddies Educates Students on Disabilities By Phoebe Chapnick-Sorokin News Editor
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ABOVE: Student Senate poses for a picture after the Constitutional Convention PHOTO BY VICTOR KALIL
By Victor Kalil Executive Editor
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ewriting the constitution has always kind of been on the back of my mind,” said Teagan Roeder ‘18, Student Senate president. “I now have that mountaintop view of everything that goes on within the school and the Student Senate and there are several areas we could make improvements in to make the operation of the Senate more simplified or better. The revision of the Student Senate Constitution was finally passed on January 31st. Changes included an attendance requirement for juniors planning on running for presidency and vice presidency, along with a clause on keeping Executive Board members (President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer) in check. “I think the main thing that the constitution was reformed for was to try to give to give a def fix the the attendance policy that people were having some probs with last year.” said Patrick McMillan ‘18, Student Senate Vice President. “It was unclear what the actual rules were and how late you needed to come before you wanted to try to run for office.” Rules for running were especially important last year, when rules were not clear and advertised enough for prospective candidates. Ultimately, Principal John Bacon had to intervene to set the bar for the rest of last year’s election period. “In past years this hadn’t really been well publicized so people were prevented from running for office because they were unaware of the requirements to do so.” said Liza Sarsfield ‘19. Roeder agreed. “Honestly, last year was just a learning experience of how not to implement an attendance policy,” said Roeder. Naturally, this issue came to the fore again during the revision process. Two sides of the attendance de-
bate emerged during discussions. The vice president—but there is definitely debate was over the proportion of a need for someone to attend at least meetings that cana few meetings of “WE JUST WANTED TO the Student Senate didates should be required to atBE SURE THAT WHOEVER so that they undertend—either onehow it works DID RUN FOR OFFICE WAS stand third or one-half because it’s a vital ACTUALLY DEDICATED institution for each year. The rule would also be set TO THE GROUP AND NOT getting stuff done for the remainder around here,” said of the year post- RUNNING AS A JOKE AS IN Roeder. ratification. Although PREVIOUS YEARS.” Roeder hoped some students the requirement preferred an open MAYA DURHAM policy, others would either be lowered or re- JUNIOR CLASS REPRESENTATIVE who had been moved completely. attending Student “I do agree Senate for a longer with the inclusivity aspect—anyone can amount of time preferred a higher bar. be the president, anybody can be the “A group of us just wanted to be
INFOGRAPHIC BY OLIVIA LUSALA
sure that whoever did run for office was actually dedicated to the group and not running as a joke as we’ve seen in previous years,” said Maya Durham ‘19. After weeks of debate and advisory meetings, senators voted for the requirement to be one-third of all meetings. “It acts as a way to make sure that someone who is running for office knows what they are getting into and that they will be dedicated to the Senate,” said Liza Sarsfield, a student senator in favor of the one-third rule. “It also helps to make sure that they get a feel for how meetings run so they don’t come in with no clue at all how things operate.” Another change is a more plannedout budget, along with designated committees, including the dance, fundraising, Homecoming, Can Drive, and election committees. “It’s good to designate ongoing committees, although I think we all knew that those were the functions before.” said Chip Hardesty, a Student Senate adviser. One of the final changes was creating a clause named “Termination of the Executive Office.” These rules set a standard for removing a member from theireExecutive position if they are not fulfilling their roles. “In the past [the position] has just been given to them and they’ve kept it whether they’ve performed well or not.” said McMillan. “I think some of the standards put in place for current executive members was necessary so we could hold the people accountable for whether they wanted to be class rep or an Executive Board member like secretary or treasurer.” However, McMillan is glad that the revision process is over with. The next revision is scheduled to take place in two years. “Revising the constitution was quite a bit of work.” said McMillan. “I’m glad it’s finally over because we have some projects I’m really looking forward to.”
ity High has one of the most prominent highschool Best Buddies programs in the country. The leaders of this club work tirelessly to make students with disabilities feel loved and included. Beatrice Kearns ‘19 has been an active member of Best Buddies since her freshman year, and she now serves as a peer buddy and on the officer team. Working with people with disabilities has always been an important part of her life. “I have two disabled siblings and my whole life the inclusion of people with disabilities has been really important to me,” Kearns said. The youngest of Kearns’ siblings, Leo Kearns ‘21, is attending City High this year as a freshman. Although Kearns was excited for Leo to participate in Best Buddies, she was nervous about him finding his place. Despite these worries, Leo has found a lot of things he loves at City High, including Best Buddies. “Watching my brother form a relationship with his buddy has been incredible,” Kearns said. “[Leo’s] buddy has changed his life. Even though he hasn’t known [his buddy]
“THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT EVERYONE IS A PERSON AND HAS THEIR ABILITIES. SEEING HOW YOU CAN MAKE CONNECTIONS WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE DIFFERENT THAN YOU IS ONE OF THE MAIN POINTS OF BEST BUDDIES.” BEATRICE KEARNS JUNIOR
for that long, he will impact Leo for the rest of his life.” Each month Best Buddies throws a party, the most recent of which was geared toward informing students about common disabilities. There were five different presentations. Many of them were personal, such as Kearns’ presentation about Leo’s disability, brain injury. “There are a lot of people with a lot of different special needs,” said Kearns. “A disability isn’t just a label and I think seeing past that and seeing into a personality and educating the rest of the school on people’s abilities and limits is really important.” Best Buddies serves as an important part of life for many City High students, with and without disabilities. Kearns says that by informing students of common disabilities, Best Buddies members are hoping to create an even more inclusive environment at City High. “The bottom line is that everyone is a person and everyone has their abilities,” said Kearns. “Seeing how you can make connections with people who are different than you is one of the main points of Best Buddies and we try to incorporate that into our parties the best that we can.”