Student Government fights common assumptions

Junior Tina Simpson explains a few tasks Student Government handles.

By Amy Jiang,
Bluedevilhub.com Staff–

These students are heard on the intercom and cheering wildly at school events. They stir up the crowd at school assemblies and show up in fourth period classes on Fridays. Students describe them as popular and peppy, sporty and sometimes scary. They are Davis High’s Student Government.

According to senior and ASB President Rami Rashmawi, common stereotypes for the typical member of Student Government include being an enthusiastic and athletic sports fan, someone who goes to all school events and is part of certain group of friends.

Sophomore Essence Moore, who is in the Student Government class, says class members are often stereotyped as “known around the school, with lots of energy, outgoing and nice.” As a DHS athlete herself who has been involved with Student Government in past years, she admits to fitting the mold pretty well.

Rashmawi believes many of the stereotypes come from students seeing the same members of Student Government present at various school events and focusing their attention on the loudest members.

In reality, Student Government is a much more diverse group with a wide range of interests.

“It’s just a group of people who really enjoy going to school events.”

According to Rashmawi, the class includes hard workers, people good at organizing or time management and some who are quiet most of the time.

“In general, there are people who belong to a lot of different groups on campus but the common thread is that we all want to do something to help the school, to work hard for the school,” Rashmawi said.

There is no division within the class along the lines of friend groups or grade.

“People definitely have friend groups, but no one in the class will not include you,” Moore said.

Other students describe Student Government as a “cult,” based on the assumption that they are part of an exclusive, tight-knit friend group. While it is true that Student Government members form close bonds, Rashmawi explains that the members of the class become much like a family from working on projects and events under pressure.

Another source of the stereotypes is the type of people who apply for the class.

“What happens is a lot of the people why try out for Student Government are from the same mold,” Rashmawi said.

However, Student Government has made it a bigger priority with upcoming elections and class applications to try and increase the diversity of the class.

“We try to reach out to groups we don’t really know, and try and get accurate representation from all of the student body and all of our campus,” Rashmawi said.

Da Vinci junior Aviva North applied to join Student Government but was rejected.

“I probably wasn’t as outgoing or ‘cool’ as them […[ they try to look for leaders and people who really like [DHS] and want to improve it. I think they could do blind applications and then interview to really determine who is fit to be in the class,” North said.

INTERACTIVE TIMELINE (click the 3D button on left hand corner)