My name is Heba. I’m in eleventh grade, and I’m here to speak about student voice and the importance of students standing up for what they believe in.
I want to talk about student voice today because when schools have opportunities for students to voice their concerns, it shows students that there’s someone willing to listen, and someone willing to speak up for us. Students have a lot of stress placed on them, and they deal with a lot of hard issues. Having a place for students to voice their opinions allows them to address these problems and have a better experience at school.
Sometimes when students voice their concerns, administrators take it poorly because it doesn’t get run by them. It’s frustrating because they need to understand that we don’t have resources, we’re not told who we’re supposed to inform. We want to follow the rules, but we don’t know what the rules are.
However, other teachers respond positively to student voices. For example, Chelsea has an attendance policy called the “E” policy that would replace your grade with an “E” as a result of three unexcused absences. We thought it was really unfair, because even if you tried hard, you would be punished for things that were sometimes out of your control. Students decided to try and protest to fix the “E” policy, and some teachers came with students to fix it because they saw that it was really unfair. It was cool to see students and teachers decide to come together, because bad policies affect teachers, too. We were like a team. It was just nice to see that we can all come together.
Back in May we had the protest for all the gun violence that was happening. It was organized solely by students and it got approved by the principal. So we just came together, to take things to the principal. It’s all about uniting at school for students and for those kinds of issues. The whole school is able to come together and there’s a good sense of community.
That showed me that making positive change is a team effort. If students want to make something happen, it’s important to involve everyone. It requires all of us. At times, our school shuts us down without listening to us. I feel like some adults may view us as less than because we’re so young. They have an opportunity to make things better for us, but they refuse to listen to our concerns. Then in the future, when we want to reach out for help, we feel shut down, and like we cannot talk to them.
I would like policymakers to require all schools to have a student council. Student councils allow students to expand their voices, host events, and bring students together through events like prom and bake sales. When you have a problem that no one will listen to, you can go to the student council because they’re very open to hear what you have to say because they’re students too. We come together and discuss the problems that not everyone mentions. It’s especially important for schools to have a student council, or student leadership, because they can serve as a middle ground to bring concerns to administrators.
I wish more of my classmates knew that their voice matters, so people would be less afraid to speak up. Using our voices helps us understand our power. If we unleash more student voices, more people will see what we’re capable of, and they’ll understand our power to make a difference. It’s so inspiring to see young people. I love our generation. We actually stick up for things.
