How homecoming court at American can be seen as a better representation of the student body
Sahana Narayan
Staff Writer
Beautiful dresses and sharp suits. Sparkling sashes worn over their shoulders. Crowns and tiaras balancing on their heads. It’s homecoming season at American High School, and at the center of it all, stands this year’s homecoming court. Homecoming court is one of the most important traditions of any high school in America, and American High School continues the tradition with their own spirit, but the process of voting people onto homecoming court could use some improvement.
One of the major plus points of American High School’s homecoming court is the court titles. Ayana Kashikar (11) explains, “You can see in every single high school, there’s a homecoming king and queen, but here it’s gender equality. I think those two people that win are the best representatives that we have of our school.”
But, even with gendered titles eliminated, there is a question of whether homecoming court is truly an inclusive process. It’s hard to ensure that nominees are reflective of the school’s ideals and interests when the nominee voting process is simply picking whoever you want. Meryl Mathew (11) suggests, “One way to make the nomination process a bit more inclusive is instead of just having [the students] vote off the list of the candidates, [they should] offer a quick explanation why. Maybe ask the nominees themselves why they want to represent our school.”
A better understanding of the nominees on homecoming court results in a stronger spirit in the student body for homecoming court in general, but improving the process isn’t only important for the students; the nominees benefit as well.
Isha Kansal, a senior and one of the nominees on court, explains that “These people are doing so many things. You know, they’ve put in so much time and effort into their extracurriculars throughout the years.” While students might know a few of the seniors on homecoming court through shared interests and extracurriculars, as Kansal mentions, most students do not know what each and every single nominee has done for the school. That lack of understanding can result in a dismissal of the hard work that each nominee has put in to be on court and an absence of variety in the different activities represented on court.
This year, fortunately, Kansal says, “The court reflects a really diverse group of seniors.” Mathew agrees, saying, “They did a really good job. I think that we should have different kinds of clubs represented, which is what they did. I think we should go more in that direction.” But, whether the voting process will provide the same inclusivity for the next classes of American is a discussion that should be had and hopefully, a discussion that will lead to a better process for voting for Homecoming Court.
Eagle Era 