In order for people to make changes in society, they must first make their opinion noted by those who can make the changes. This means that others will hear what they have to say and then they will spread this message to other people. Students have localized this practice to Freedom, as some have started to voice their thoughts and opinions to the school board. However, this only applies to a few select students who choose to speak up. All students should speak up and realize that they have a voice and a need to speak their mind about what goes on in the district. One of these groups of people that most often can solve these problems is the school board.
The community is the people who vote in people on the school board. Students and members of the community expect these people to make the best decisions for them. The problem is that oftentimes decisions are made without much input from the community. The community elects people to the board to make decisions for the students, yet why do students not give much input back to the board on the decisions that they make?

Over the past several months, students have been voicing their concerns to the school board about troubles that they have with the district. For example, when teachers and the prevention specialists were furloughed at the beginning of the summer, students such as junior Camryn Hampe went to the meeting and spoke to the school board. She voiced how she disagreed with the decision and how much the prevention specialists meant to her.

Another example of student voice being active is senior Melissa Keith. Keith approached the school board about purchasing and using a fire-retardant mat for the track. She would be able to twirl fire with her batons on the turf field without causing any problems to the turf on the field or the surface of the track. With collaboration from the school board, her problem was eventually sorted out.

While there are some students who do speak up and voice their opinions, they are few and far between. When problems arrive, students are quick to make their decisions and form their own opinions on what is going on. However, students often don’t voice these opinions and instead keep them to themselves, never actually addressing the issue with people who could make a change and potentially solve their problem.

The school board should strive to listen to people’s opinions, yet they do not have much input from students or the
community to make these decisions. Members of the school board don’t come into classrooms and see what is going on from day to day and get input from students. That’s where student voice is necessary.

Students have to voice their opinions to those that can make changes because the school board members have less knowledge of what is going on in the school on a day-to-day basis. The way the school system works has changed a lot since the majority of the board members went to high school. Students have to voice what has changed and how the school can adapt to these changes, rather than decisions being made with little or no input from what the students want. Students have to be the ones who create change within the district.

When students are giving their opinions, they aren’t only speaking for themselves. They are also speaking for their teachers. One of these reasons is because a majority of the teachers at Freedom don’t live in the district. Subsequently, a majority of teachers can not speak at the meetings because they do not live in the district. As a result, it falls on the responsibility of students to voice opinions for their teachers.

The best thing that students can do to start having their opinion heard is by going to a school board meeting and educating themselves on what goes on at a meeting. A majority of the students at Freedom have never been to a school board meeting. Students will be able to learn what actually goes on at a school board meeting and learn all of the facts first-hand rather than from an outside source who may get the facts wrong. This will allow students to remain informed about what is going on in the district. Students can then voice their opinions and create change for what they want.