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.
