Editorial: Lack of transparency in mock election warrants questioning

Political awareness is essential in making educated decisions on who and what to vote for. The legal age to vote is 18, making high school an important phase in an individual’s life to learn more about voting for candidates or propositions that affect their very lives. Along with in-class lessons and activities, real-world applications such as mock elections are crucial to help students understand political functions. 

In the past month leading up to the presidential election, various social science teachers began to set up a mock election that was approved last spring for students to take and learn about their civic duties. However, the section of the mock election in which the presidential election was located was removed prior to students seeing the form.

Based on several sources, we at The Hoofprint obtained conflicting stories of the event. From a social science teacher’s perspective, administration at Walnut High School intentionally removed the presidential election without their prior knowledge. This social science teacher felt that it disregarded the amount of work that went into creating lesson plans, a teacher script providing clear instructions to students along with the purpose of the activity and the form itself in order to help students understand the election. Without the presidential election, to them, the mock election, and thus their work, became fruitless.  

However, when speaking to an administrator, they claim the intention was never to remove the presidential election without the social science teachers’ knowledge. From the perspective of an administrator, it was the cohesive decision of administration and the social science department that underwent many collaborative variations. Ultimately, the removal of the presidential election was a mistake, according to this administrator, which directly contradicts the social science teacher’s perspective of the administration’s intentional removal of it. 

The implications of this variation in story need to be addressed, no matter the final conclusion that is found. If it was an honest mistake on the part of the administration, then there lies an acute need for transparency, specifically to the members of the social science department who felt that the action was unjust and unwarranted. 

If it was intentional, we at The Hoofprint must ask why. Does Walnut High School not stand on the values of freedom of expression and prioritize the views and opinions of students? If so, removing the presidential election is inherently contradictory to those values and warrants an extensive and transparent questioning of the administrative team.