SGA stands for Student Government Association, truth and fair treatment to all students at this school, right? Well lately SGA has been less of a group of teens working together to solve problems and more of way for the rich and popular to be seen and talked about. While issues go unsolved, SGA members and candidates spend valuable time and resources doing nothing more than putting their faces on posters. So let me get this straight, the people that I’m voting for don’t care about us let alone the issues? Sound familiar?
SGA elections took place earlier this month, and many kids, like me, stood in line to vote for friends or fellow classmates. When the results came out, many of my classmates were voted in and given good places on the council. I was ecstatic to see my friends happy until I heard what they said. “We’re going to fix this school up.” And “We will represent the kids who don’t speak out, we will be the voice.” Well hmmmm, I’ve heard that before, haven’t you? Kids say that every year, and as soon as they are in SGA nothing is done.
Now I realize that there are good natured kids that care about the school, but you know what, none of them are on the council. Take this year’s prom for example. The seniors that were going paid last year for their tickets. This was an Edgewater tradition. But this year the students were informed that they had to pay from prom again. Now I realize that the SGA doesn’t have the power or resources to make the prom just happen, or make Principal Iiames give the kids their money back, but they could have at least talked it out or petitioned it. Seriously? These kids are supposed to represent us and instead they disappear when we need them most? What kind of message does that send to the impressionable people here?
SGA has become nothing more than a mock election and can not and will not be taken seriously until immediate action is taken. SGA is a popularity contest, where the rich, beautiful, and outgoing kids are voted in. That’s not necessarily bad, but to what extent should this go? SGA candidates should have to do more than just meet certain qualifications such as grades and classroom behavior. There should be debates where issues can be brought up and members can effectively describe their plans and actions. SGA should have an active role in the politics of this school and not just pretend they can’t solve the issues.
We need the toilets in the bathrooms to be fixed, the trash around campus to be cleaned, new textbooks in our classrooms, the sewage smell in the 200 hall gone, and major other problems to be acknowledged! If the SGA will not step up and start taking responsibility and solving these problems, then who will?