It was October of 2016 when I first realized the flaw in Parker’s Student Government system. It was my freshman year, and my New-to-Parker student self was still trying to adjust to the unfamiliar environment.

On this day, during either a Plenary session or a Morning EX (I can’t exactly remember which), the Morning EX committee was all seated on stage, in rows. And in the process of scanning the faces of the committee, I noticed something peculiar. One of my freshman classmates, who had been at Parker during middle school, was also seated on the stage. “He must be filling in for a junior or something,” I thought. “There’s no way he could actually be a member of the committee.”

I asked one of my peers sitting next to me for clarification. “No, he’s a committee head,” they replied. “But how did he get there?” I asked. “He ran last year, as an eighth grader,” my peer replied in an annoyed tone, as if I should have known this already.

But I hadn’t. Over those next few months, I started noticing more of my non-Bridge classmates holding positions of leadership in the Student Government. Hmm… I thought to myself. That’s kinda unfair. I just got here. How come the people who were already here get this advantage?

This problem has been at the forefront of my mind since the beginning of this school year. During a Senate in either September or October, I brought up the issue, explaining how I thought that as a new student to 9th grade, I didn’t think it was fair that current eighth graders have the opportunity to participate in Student Government. A senior replied to my comment.

“Well, they sit in on Plenary for the whole second semester. It would be kind of weird if we high schoolers told the eighth graders that after six months of coming to Student Government, they couldn’t run. What’s the point, then?”

That’s still has me thinking. What is the point? Why do they need to participate? And in my opinion, the short answer is: they don’t.

Yes, it is inevitable that when coming to Parker, getting adjusted to the school’s schedule and environment is difficult, and learning your way around as a new student will be challenging. Naturally, new students are at a disadvantage.

However, these disadvantages faced in freshman year should not continue throughout all four years of their high school careers.

In the current Student Government system, eighth grade students who attain positions on Cabinet, as Committee heads, or in an appointed seat are put at a step ahead of the incoming high school students when applying for positions in the future. Just one more thing on a resume that a new student won’t ever be able to acquire, making the process even more unfair than it already is.

I talked to sophomore Celia Rattner, who also came to Parker in her freshman year, about this issue. “Student Government is a big thing at Parker, and we really didn’t have it at my old school, so I knew I wanted to get involved when I came,” Rattner said. “But then, I realized that it’s pretty difficult. The issue is that the current eighth graders get to run for things before we even get into Parker. They get to decide what they want to run for and talk to the ninth and tenth graders, and we don’t even have that opportunity.”

In my opinion, there is one, not-so-easy solution to this problem: delay all education about Student Government to the beginning of freshman year, and exclude 8th graders entirely from the system.

This way, we can educate ALL freshmen Parker students at the same time about the ins-and-outs of Student Government. Every student, from the “Bridge Kids” to the “Lifers,” will get an equal start. Positions specifically reserved for freshmen (such as Senate Representative, Board Representative) would be up for appointment during second semester.

Rattner agrees. “There has to be a way to implement this,” she said. “How does Saint Ignatius elect their cabinet members? How does every other school do it?”

“It would have to take a big structural shift that a lot of people would probably oppose,” she added, “but I don’t understand why the system has to be so unfair for a lot of people.”

And she is right. A major change such as this one would require multiple amendments to the constitution, several plenary discussions, and a whole lot of writing/editing. But operating in a democratic student government such as our own, we have the opportunity to change.

Not everyone agrees with my plan including sophomore Adele Lowitz, who was at Parker during middle school. “No,” she said, “I think it’s important that we have involvement from all four grades,” implying that through my proposed plan, the freshman grade voice would be silenced.

Though it may seem so at first (as positions specifically reserved for freshmen would be barred from appointment in eighth grade), the action of educating all students later and together will actually make their voice more meaningful, as the voice will have more of a purpose.

It’s about time we remove eighth grade student participation and fix the flaws in our system. At a school that advocates for inclusion and equity for all, it’s terribly ironic and shameful that they’re allowing incoming high school students to be put at such a major disadvantage. It’s time we stand up and fix this problem, for all students in the future.