The newly re-introduced student government has everybody sharing school-political views and comments, staff included. The system itself was announced last year in the spring by Mrs. Bruce and other staff and came to action this week on Tuesday, September 25th and Wednesday, September 26th.

Each candidate has gone through gathering signatures from their peers and references from adults as well as setting up political campaign posters throughout the building, and most importantly, preparing and giving a speech to the students of Sweet Home during the aforementioned dates from this week, periods 1-4.

Matt Miller

The first candidate, Matt Miller, spoke with great confidence promising change in so many different forms. The first few namely being removal of 11:59 due dates, return of the App Store on student iPads, and a chance for students to vote for electives and apparel. His ideas were centered around school spirit and safety. His idea of voting on apparel played into spirit, and removal of pool noodles from the side of classroom doors was offered to start fixing the safety issue. Matt also promised an elimination of styrofoam trays and a change in lunch options as well as the implementation of a fresh breakfast bar.

Ana Ocasio

The second candidate, Ana Ocasio, noted that the school as of now can be represented as a dictatorship between administration and students. She aims to fix this as she plans to reform the dress code, change lunch selections and work to allow students to come and go as they please during their study halls. She also mentioned having more events comparable to community day to raise school spirit year round and keep it alive.

Emmanuel Simmons

Candidate three, Emmanuel Simmons, began his speech by stating that bullying will not be tolerated and punished harder than before. Emmanuel also promised lower vending machine prices, better lunch selections. Simmons told us that it’s our turn to build on the legacy of Sweet Home.

Jack Gembala

The fourth candidate, Jack Gembala, told us his qualifications of class president right off the bat. Jack has been involved in several leadership positions in his Boy Scout Troop, and has helped out in plenty of Eagle Scout projects. Eagle Scout is a somewhat legendary rank in scouting, as it displays diligence and longevity amongst other qualities to employers, colleges, etc. Jack told the student body that he would do everything in his power to make their 2018-2019 school year great, and addressed that he had decided not to put any on his campaign posters as to avoid lying to his voters. This way, if certain campaign promises were near-impossible, he could pull away from that idea but nobody would be let down, as the promise had yet to be announced.

Maya Dabney

Maya Dabney is the fifth candidate for student body president. Her speech mentioned the phrase, “your needs are my needs” as the first and last words spoken, and was repeated numerous times throughout. This is because of her idea that unity will make us “more powerful than you see” and introduced us to a model of thinking using the motto, “Decide, Commit, Succeed.” under the idea that once you decide something, you commit to it. And once you commit, you’ll succeed.

Evan Peters

Evan Peters is candidate number 6. Peters’ campaign slogan, “salt those fries”, earned him a chant pre-speech. Evan’s speech was a lot more humorous than the rest of the other candidates, causing abrupt and seemingly endless laughter from the crowd regularly. Evan’s speech centered around the cuisine of the high school, promising better, more flavorful lunch, vending machine, and condiment options.

Elections are Friday, September 28th during your History/Social Studies classes! Hopefully this article has helped you recap today’s events in the auditorium from Periods 1 to 2, concerning the Presidential Candidates of the 2018-2019 school year.

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Joey Bastian

Joey is a striving musician as well as a journalist. His main focus is on the breaking down of popular albums and the in-depth analysis that it can offer. Check out his complete breakdown series of articles.