The veto has been making national headlines recently, as President Barack Obama set a record number of threats in his State of the Union address to use it against legislation he disagrees with, according to the Washington Times.

At the high school, however, vetoes from Headmaster Deborah Holman of bills passed by Legislature have been issued for a different reason: to give faculty more time to review them.

In January 2013, Legislature passed a version of our current technology policy Holman vetoed it “so that faculty and administrators at large could give feedback,” according to the Sagamore article “Technology bill approved for school-wide trial period.” A revised bill was accepted by Legislature. After a trial period, it became an official rule.

Last month, a bill freeing seven weekends from homework faced the same fate. Holman’s justification was that we “need to reflect on and analyze the issue more broadly and according to a thoughtful study plan that includes students, faculty and parents,” according to the Sagamore article “Headmaster vetoes Legislature’s homework bill.”

Holman said these bills have such a large impact on faculty that they deserve the chance to give feedback.

“When I have gotten legislation, like cell phones and headphones, and then the homework one, those are so good, and yet so impactful on both students and faculty,” Holman said, “that sometimes I think there should be wider faculty feedback on it beyond just the faculty on Legislature.”

Junior Emily Bivens, a co-chair of student council who has also been on Legislature for the past three years, had a different view of Holman’s actions.

“Although, of course, I respect Ms. Holman and her decisions to veto the bills, I do feel that in doing so she undermines legislature unnecessarily,” Bivens said. “She has yet to pass a bill that legislature has proposed without giving it further review, and this is not the way that our school’s governing bodies are really supposed to work.”

Article 1, Section 5 of the school’s constitution states that the Headmaster has 15 school days to veto a submitted bill, and that “when the Headmaster does veto a proposal or judgment, this veto must be accompanied by a written rationale for that action.”

This rationale should not be that faculty input is desired; the Headmaster should veto or accept bills based on their merit alone.

Legislature serves as a way for students and faculty to work together to submit bills for review.

Forcing this strong union to go through an extra step by vetoing even the most unanimously positive of bills slows down the legislative process and lessens its power.

“I think the purpose of legislature is to give both students and teachers a voice,” Bivens said. “In order for this to happen, both of these groups should continue to have an equal say.”

Holman said she would like for faculty to be able to give more feedback than the process lets them do now, since the bills affect them so much. While this is not a bad idea, she and other faculty should openly work to insert this stage in the legislative process before the bill is submitted to her.

“We should be working together,” Bivens said. “If she feels these committees are necessary, than perhaps they should be more involved in the process of writing and passing bills in Legislature, rather than as something that occurs after the fact, causing her to veto any bill.”

Holman expressed openness to this possibility.

“Could that piece of the process be inside the deliberation in Legislature? Yes,” she said. “We could build that in.”

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