You’ve have heard about it in the halls and facebook wars have been entertaining to say the least.  The Spartacus had a chance to sit down with Ms.Kelly and we are here to clarify the rumors that are swirling around about the Rising Juniors Class Council election.  The most contentious race in the class was for President, between Brooke Schuchts, Harrison Stier, and Ryan Finvarb.  Another race of interest was for the class’ VP slot between John Sayfie and Tristan Escalante.  

The animosity in the race started when Harrison and Tristan got a video approved by Ms.Kelly and subsequently posted it.  The video jokingly accuses John of being connected to Fidel Castro.  Ms.Kelly initially approved the video as she didn’t take it very seriously.   In hindsight, Ms.Kelly says that “I should have taken the rules more literally and not allowed them to post the video,” thus taking responsibility for the fiasco. Subsequently, Ms.Kelly agreed that Ryan and John would be allowed to make their own campaign video in response, and that would be the end of it.  No more attacks would be allowed between the two camps.  

Nothing else happened until the day of the speeches.  During the speeches, Harrison and Tristan continually attacked their opponents, even when being explicitly interrupted by teachers duing the actual speech to be reminded that such talk about other candidates was not permitted.

The broken rule states “Any candidate acting in an unsportsmanlike or unethical manner will be disqualified immediately. Do not make any reference to race, religion, gender, etc. and do not talk about the other candidates.  Run on your own strengths”.  

 Mr. Brennan and Mr. Bronish reached out to Mr.Oronoz about the negative nature of the speeches.  Mr. Oronoz decided that the content of the speeches violated the rule enough to warrant disqualification.  Mr.Turf, Mr. Brennan, and Ms. Kelly supported his decision.

According to Ms. Kelly, several students approached her to express, as she put it, their “disgust” with the speech’s tone.  Among student complaints were the attacks against the other opponents. The chief complaint of most students, however, was the fact that during the speech Harrison also said that people in college preparatory (CP) courses have little to no work.  He presented evidence of this by taking out his phone and showing a picture of himself watching Netflix in class every day, to the dismay of several teachers present. To clarify, his comments regarding the CP classes were not what got him disqualified though they did offend several of his classmates who take college prep courses.

Interestingly enough, Harrison was able to capture a number of votes in spite of, or, possibly, because of his speech.  Thus, if Harrison had not been disqualified, he would have participated in the runoff against Ryan Finvarb.  Instead, due to the disqualification, the runoff will take place between Ryan and Brooke.

In response to the disqualification, Harrison said, “I understand completely what I said in the speeches was wrong and shouldn’t have been said, and I do understand why I was disqualified”.  Harrison, however, wishes there was a way in which the class could show their belief in him.  He wishes, “there should be a way that they can get me back in.”  Although his disqualification has taken him out of the running this year, he may be able to redeem himself with the Class of 2018 in next spring’s elections.

Meanwhile, this Tuesday morning will determine who will lead the Class of 2018 in the coming year.