June 4, 2010
by Susie Pender
Four students at Horace Greeley High School are running for Student Council President for next year. They were scheduled to give their speeches to the entire student body this past Wednesday at a school-wide assembly. Shortly before the assembly, Principal Andrew Selesnick cancelled their speeches, although he allowed all other candidates for all the other student council offices for next year to give their speeches.
According to a letter addressed to the students that Principal Selesnick posted on the Greeley web site Thursday morning, the reason the presidential candidates did not speak at the assembly was because “More than one of the candidates made mistakes (unrelated to their speeches) in the hours prior to the election that forced us to reconsider how to run this particular part of this election.” The full text of Principal Selesnick’s letter is printed below. He explained that he made a point in the letter to stress that the decision to cancel the speeches did not relate to the content of the speeches because some rumors he had heard were suggesting that.
“In future elections we will need to be more careful about the process,” Principal Selesnick explained. “We need to be a little more precise regarding what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.” Although the principal clarified that the “mistakes” made by two of the candidates were different and unrelated to each other, they both “related to the process of the election.” He declined to elaborate on what exactly the mistakes were or who committed them. “I will not discuss individual student behavior.”
The net effect of this decision is that two candidates were denied the opportunity to give their speeches through no fault of their own. The speeches will not made available to be read either. As outlined in Principal Selesnick’s letter, the candidates must submit “position papers” by Saturday at 10:00 a.m. that will be posted on the Greeley web site. “We’ll probably put a reminder on the TV screens [about the election and the position papers] and it will be part of the morning announcements on Monday and Tuesday,” Selesnick explained in response to a follow-up email. “Students were also told how to vote at the assembly on Wednesday. That’s all in addition to the web site, of course.”
Full text of Principal Selesnick’s letter to the Greeley students
Dear Students,
As you are well aware, the presidential candidates did not speak at yesterday’s election. More than one of the candidates made mistakes (unrelated to their speeches) in the hours prior to the election that forced us to reconsider how to run this particular part of this election.
Under ideal circumstances, students would make their speeches in front of their peers. But these are no longer ideal circumstances. I’ve discussed a variety of options with the four candidates. All of the options had some compromises. The only opportunity to have the candidates speak publicly again would be next Wednesday, the day of the class government elections. That timing would cost any of the candidates who lose the student council presidential election the chance to run for class government (an opportunity losing candidates have always had in the past). So, in light of the circumstances, and with input from the four candidates, we have decided that we will put each candidate’s position paper – a statement from each about why he wants to be your president – online. The candidates have a deadline of 10 am Saturday by which they must submit those papers. I will post them as soon as I can, and you will have the opportunity to read them and vote for your chosen candidate all day on Monday and Tuesday. This will allow us to announce a winner on Tuesday afternoon and still allow the losing candidates the chance to run in the student government elections on Wednesday.
Once again, this is not ideal, and I hope we can return to speeches in the gym next year, but given the circumstances presented to us, I think we’ve reached a fair outcome.
Thank you for your understanding and I encourage you to participate in the voting, for all the elections, next week.
Andrew Selesnick
Copyright 2012 NewCastleNOW.org