Calling all students! This is the moment to take control of your education and fight for what you want. You can use your power in our high school’s democracy to shape your educational experience, and we’re going to tell you how.
Your power as a student at the high school is wielded through the Handbook, Judiciary and your elected representatives on Legislature and Student Council who meet weekly to make change. However, we need your input and action to help us work for you.
The first step towards creating a public empowered to fight for change is an informed community. Last year, when reflecting on the process of the Equitable Grading Bill, one of the largest bill projects in years, The Cypress’ Editorial Board called us out, writing that the bill process was “confusing” and that Legislature needs to “improve on their public communication.” We are ready to change the narrative and create a strong and sustainable student body willing to advocate for what we want.
This fall, for the first time ever, government representatives went to every freshman History class to explain the election process and encourage students to run. We are not stopping there. After discussion last year, Student Council has decided to create a brand new government column in The Cypress to do our part in keeping the school community informed about what we’re doing.
Our high school Government is incredibly unique when compared to analogous systems at other schools. After perusing the handbooks of other high schools, we have concluded that students in Brookline enjoy far more agency than students could generally hope for from a school government.
In Legislature, students and teachers are equally represented and make real change in our school community. On Judiciary, students outnumber teachers. The fact that we have such bodies that make meaningful decisions in the first place speaks to the values the high school promotes: freedom and responsibility. This frequently repeated school mantra describes the whole point of our government system: at the high school, we value what students have to say about their education, and we want to give them a voice in shaping it.
Student government has a lot to do with the people on our legislative and advisory bodies. However, if you’re not an elected member to Legislature or Student Council, that doesn’t mean you don’t have a voice in our bill-making process. In fact, many initiatives that students have taken up in Legislature were proposed by the general student body; it’s because of you that we pursue specific, pro-student policies. We’re always eager to listen to your opinions, and we’re never more than an email or hallway chat away. Consider these examples from the past. After walkouts during the 2021-22 school year, Legislature created the Tackling Injustice Bill, which created a five-step process to respond to incidents of hate and demand accountability and transparency from the school administration. During the 2023-24 school year, the South Asian Student Alliance (SASA) reached out to Student Council to make Diwali a homework free holiday. Student Council held an assembly where we collected 791 student signatures and then presented the proposal to the Brookline School Committee. Within a year, students no longer had homework on Diwali.
As students, you should also feel empowered to hold teachers accountable for the rights you already possess. Get familiar with the high school’s Handbook! It outlines all the protections students can expect, from the number of assessments you can have in a day before postponing one (two) to how your final grades should be rounded (to the nearest whole number). If your teacher is assigning homework over a category one or two holiday or asynchronous work that is due before the next block, you can (politely) inform them that this is not allowed. If you believe your rights are being violated and a discussion with your teacher doesn’t lead to an adequate resolution, you have another tool at your disposal: Judiciary, which hears cases over student-faculty disputes and interprets the Handbook accordingly.
In short, all students at the high school have numerous channels to engage in our school democracy. Your voice is valued. We want to hear from you about rights you want to have and rights that are not being respected.
