As a new school year starts, class election season comes around. And this year’s elections have been perhaps one of the most competitive. For freshmen, they are a way to start out high school strong and establish themselves as class leaders. For seniors, they are a way for presidents to assure that the class has a great and productive last year. However, there have been some concerns from students about the amount of posters put up by candidates as a part of their “campaigns.” One such student said, “It seemed like the election was a battle about who could make the most posters and put them in the most annoying places instead of showing how them being president would benefit the student body.” The sudden presence of posters in the Upper School has been credited mostly to freshmen, who continued the Middle School’s fun tradition of putting up election posters, which wasn’t a typical practice in the Upper School. Some other grades quickly followed suit. “After that, it gained unnecessary popularity and people put them up everywhere,” a concerned student said.
Another issue is the amount of paper use involved. When they printed posters, most candidates didn’t consider the amount of paper and ink that was used. Discarded paper and paperboard make up approximately 26% of solid municipal waste in landfills. Do we really want to contribute to that more than necessary? For a school that is trying to become more “green,” the frequency of election posters seems counterproductive. Posters from the same candidate, even identical ones, could often be seen placed less than 6 feet apart in the halls. “It could have been fun, but it ended up being a waste and pretty ridiculous,” a senior remarked.
What do you think? Has this been taken too far, or are the candidates in their rights here?