By Kristie Hoang & Katrya Ly
This article has been edited from the original published version for clarity.
As the school year comes to a close, something is missing from FVHS. It’s a distant memory for juniors and seniors, and it’s never existed for sophomores and freshmen.
For the past two years, there have been no public elections for executive ASB. Traditionally, qualified candidates run a weeklong campaign to attract student votes. Then, the executive ASB elections take place after candidates’ speeches are broadcast by the BBN. Once the votes are tallied, the newly elected executive board chooses the leadership positions among themselves.
When asked why elections were not held last year former Assistant Principal Joe Fraser said, “There were the same amount of applicants as positions. Since the applicants were running unopposed I decided to save the instructional time and money of holding an election.”
This year was no different.
“There were not enough qualified applicants [this year] to hold an election,” said ASB vice president Nick Nguyen (‘15).
Students are frustrated there have been no elections for the past two years.
“It’s only fair that we as students have the right to decide who sets the precedent for us,” said Evelyn Hoang (‘17).
Frustrations within ASB then went public when a student posted a lengthy complaint about their rejection from ASB, which caught the attention of many students on Facebook.
Later, the senior executive board of ASB voiced their opinions about the choices that the new executive board made on Twitter. New executive board members countered the statements of the former senior board. Accusations of rigging school events soon came to surface.
The public disagreement rattled the student body, which quickly took to social media make accusations of ASB rigging school events. The public disagreement quickly spilled over to include the student body.
“[I] can’t deal with the fact ASB has been rigging [things] the whole time,” said a student on Twitter.
Later, an ASB member tweeted, “Please respect our decisions regarding ASB choices and we’ll understand your opinions. It works both ways.”
When asked why ASB’s internal conflict spilled over into a public forum, an ASB member who asked that their name not be used, said, “As a whole unit, ASB works really well together. When examining them under a microscope, it all falls apart into people who do work, and people who don’t do work, and those two groups have a lot of resentment towards each other.”
This is the first time a large-scale argument has taken place in a public forum.
“There is currently no specific policy regarding social media for ASB members. There will be, going forward,” said Lamar.
“I feel like the new executive board will be very unified; they are on really good terms together,” said the ASB member. “There will be times of inevitable conflicts, but I think next year will be much better than this year, compatibility-wise and chemistry-wise.”
BBN reporter, Melissa Valle, contributed to this article.
Many ASB members act as if they are entitled to everything at the school. They are hungry for power and they frequently misuse it for their own personal causes. To ASB members, in college, you will learn the hard way that you are not as important as you thought you were.
“There were not enough qualified applicants [this year] to hold an election,” said ASB vice president Nick Nguyen (‘15).
no there were enough qualified people for the school to have elections, but Lamar didn’t want that. ridiculous.
Exactly. In Russia even one candidate is enough for an election.
This post should be deleted off baronnews.com. I don’t think this is should be on this page because it’s basically portraying FV’s asb very badly.
You sound like you’re in asb
I disagree with your opinion because I think that it’s important to keep readers properly informed of the happenings at school.
The point of social media is to inform people of what’s going on in their society, in this case ASB, whether it’s good or bad for their reputation. You can’t just ignore problems this big because it portrays the school poorly, you need to expose the problem and fix it. This was a much needed and well written article.
Baron New’s job is to report the facts and inform students. Clearly, many students were not informed of these events, and were obviously angry.
If this post is removed and we gloss over the fact that students are not getting a vote, then how will that remedy the fact that students don’t get a vote? Keeping this information from students won’t help the situation; everything is not all peachy so we should fix it.
More students need to read this and see ASB’s point of view.
Asb has frustrated many people including me I guess u just had to know the right people to make it into Asb for next year. I’m disappointed in the decisions they made but this will not define me I will still continue to be a leader and it’s there loss.
ASB drama oh no, it’s almost as if this is doesn’t actually mean anything
“m-muh transcripts”
well said
My first reaction after reading this Baron Banner article is utter disappointment. To be honest, I’ve always enjoyed reading Baron Banner because they help bring out the goodness of our FVHS student body by recognizing their achievements and accomplishments.
However, this article only makes me feel like ASB is being criticized based on very biased opinions from random students. How did this article not resemble gossip news from People’s magazine? If articles like this continue to be published, our school is going to lose its unity and acceptance. Yes, if you really thought the Twitter fight was so immature, how is this article any different? Taking other people’s drama and using it as a topic to gain attention is just as low.
agreed
Upon reading this article, I agree that there might be disappointment arrived from students who support ASB. Just like how everyone has their own opinion, they also have their own way to express their opinion.
However, to say that Baron Banner takes “other people’s drama and using it as a topic to gain attention” is not a valid argument. For instance, if the topic was students’ fight over social medias, then it would be “other people’s drama”. However, ASB is a representation of FVHS student body and they are well aware of their actions being publicized. If the student government was to be falling apart, would it not be necessary to inform to the students?
I agree that mentioning the Twitter fight is not necessary, but it is a fact that Barons are not getting to vote on next year’s ASB. Because ASB stands for associated student body, I feel like the students of FVHS should pick their ASB board. I don’t think the desires of the total student population is accurately depicted by the senior ASB board and the Assistant Principal of Activities.
One of the purposes of Baron News is to inform the students about what’s going on around school and about their school in general. Maybe Baron News wasn’t trying to grab attention; maybe they were just trying to do what a newspaper should do: inform. I don’t think it’s immature to acknowledge we have a problem and we are going to fix it.
I agree as well
LOL
I agree that calling attention to Twitter fight isn’t necessary, but Baron News aims to inform students about what is happening around the school. The fact is that students are not picking their representatives. Need I remind anyone that ASB means associated student body? I dont think ASB can really represent the student body if they are being picked by just senior board and the Assistant Principal of Activities. If candidates ran for board and got on board by vote, then they deserve their position. A complaint letter wouldn’t be so disturbing to anyone because everyone who ran for a board position would have a fair chance to get into ASB.
Why is this article on the fvhs.com web page and our school’s other events not on it like our baseball season, choir broadway, etc. Is this supposed to be more important and glorified or what? I don’t get why baron banner posted this and publicized it even more. It’s not freaking radaronline. #disappointed
Please check your sources. Baron Banner covers all school events and have been publicizing it on various social medias. Just because you did not see it doesn’t mean it did not happen.
I agree that Baron Banner does have the right to inform the student population about what goes on at school, however this whole “twitter fight” shouldn’t be so important as to concern the entire school. We shouldn’t glorify a negative moment of the past, especially because it happened long ago and people have regretted things that were said, and it’s over. The real issue at hand- school elections- should’ve been more of the focus of the article, not the “fight” itself. If the sole intention of the article was to inform students, then maybe the article should have been published earlier near the date of when everything actually happened. However, now that it’s being brought up again after a while, it’s kind of like why are you bring up things that have already been settled? It only just shines a negative light on ASB and this just leads people to anonymously criticize ASB or Baron Banner because of this article. Just a thought.
I have a sibling in ASB and from what they’ve told me, ASB sucks now. It was never like this when I went to FVHS. Everyone worked together instead of against each other. You need to shut up and try to fix it instead of complaining about it.
i agree. asb needs to get their crap together because they’re suppose to be representing the school… not themselves or their friends. rigging competitions and fighting with each other? they need to grow up.
This was a great news article. It was very informative and was based on some real news. I had no idea that ASB cut public elections and I feel like that definitely increases the already high tensions felt towards ASB. Any kind of decisions making body will face hatred because they have to make tough calls and it’s sad to see so much conflict from within. Hopefully they can pull themselves together this upcoming year.
Usually I refrain from publicly commenting on threads…Since my name is on it…the Asb and I did not pick the executive board…there were the same amount of applicants as positions…I did not chose the applicants nor did ASB…since the applicants were running unopposed I decided to save the instructional time and money of holding an election…we need to remember that all news sources have bias…those who read and watch the news have bias…With that being said we should strive for accuracy in our reporting…I wish the Barons all the best…
I understand everyone’s emotions because I as a student am mad too about this situation. But, as a person not in ASB, I’m trying to picture what they feel like right now. This fight and this situation occurred weeks ago. Bringing this back up was totally unnecessary and is just bringing up bad light again. If you wanted to “inform” all of us, then just bring up the elections?!?! Bringing up the Twitter fight is just as immature as the Twitter fight itself.
As much as you say that this is informing the students, gossip is still gossip.
I believe that this article was unnecessary and should be taken off the baron news site because it is giving our asb a bad name. This is basically bagging on asb without actually bagging on asb. I personally believed that they tried their best this year and although it does not compare to past year, you have to give it to them for trying their ultimate best. If you have a problem with asb, why not take it up with them> You guys ( kristie and katrya) are basic talking bad behind OUR asb. Are you a baron or?