Students lose with Libby's love connection

An editorial by James Norton

High School Student Councils across the nation are known as do-nothing clubs for the preppie elite; most students imagine that Council members just skip a few classes, accomplish nothing, and then pat themselves on the back. West's Student Council is a little different, though; in a few months of operation, Student Council has managed to organize a food drive, draft the beginnings of a Student Constitution, start a West High Crimestoppers network, organize a newsletter, and begin to work on school problems such as racism in Homecoming Courts, and the inefficiency of the lunchroom. On top of this, they've managed to organize, through the efforts of members Anne Lund and Andy Gansner, a school-wide computer dating program that would raise approximately $1000 for student efforts, as well as helping lovelorn Westies play the dating game a little more efficiently. Cool.

Students were to fill out questionnaires in their 2nd hour classes, which would be processed by computer; the results, a list of the nine most compatible members of the opposite sex at West, plus bonus of the least compatible person, wouldbe available for $2 a student. Everyone wins, right?

You'd think so. Unfortunately for our Student Council, and the students they represent, two of the questions on the survey were controversial enough to attract Libby's attention: one asked which teacher students would most like to have an affair with, the other asked student opinion of Mr. Lyon.

In response to the explosive nature of these questions, and the damage teacher complaints could do to her sparkling reputation, Principal Burmaster found it necessary, during Thursday's 2nd hour (the hour the surveys were to go out) to announce that students were not to complete the surveys. Hey kids, do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

The result is that Student Council's fund-raising efforts were sabotaged, and many hours of student work were spoiled, by Burmaster's orders.

A simple question remains... Was Burmaster's decision to kill the fund raising efforts of Student Council just a cowardly act to cover her own ass (as she claimed), or was it a calculated attempt to prevent student empowerment, and the funding of a student council that might actually take some semblance of real responsibility and power?

Either she's willing to wreck the hopes and efforts of a lot of hardworking students to save her own reputation from a tiny blemish, or she's trying to prevent Student Council from picking up any clout that might rival her own. Choose your own ending, kids, I wish I could see the whole truth here... But either way, I don't think welve got a Principal, I think we've got a politician. Great. She's a super politician. So super that I wish she'd resign and run for public office, so that someone who actually cares about students could take her place. I'm tired of having a principal who disgraces the school she's supposed to represent, with backstabbing and political machinations. It's time for someone new.