By Gabby Ahlzadeh

This year, Student Government has implemented a new election process involving a primary election for the head prefect position. Instead of the usual school-wide election, the junior class listened to the 12 head prefect candidates’ statements first and then voted last Friday.

The top six candidates, David Alpert, Gaven Lucas, Wesley Yip, Emma Kaplan, Hannah Moody and Tasia Smith, will stand before the current freshman, sophomore and junior classes in the usual town-forum style during class assemblies this week. Final voting is being held throughout this week with final results announced by Friday.

“We just figured that the junior class knows the candidates the best, so they know who will be best fit for the job,” Head Prefect Hailey Orr ’07 said. “The election shouldn’t just be based on one-minute speeches since not the entire school knows the candidates that well.”

Also different this year is that the freshmen will be able to vote for head prefect considering that “they will be on campus and will be represented by the head prefects as well next year,” Prefect Nuriel Moghavem ’07 said. “It’s important that they have a hand in electing their representatives.”

Such primary elections were also a solution to the fact that the freshmen barely know the candidates, if not for siblings or sports teams.

The decision was made during a student government senior group meeting and received support from the administration. 

“We thought we were slighting the freshmen and wanted to give them the opportunity to vote even though they don’t necessarily know the candidates that well and may not be mature enough to make such a serious decision,” Head Prefect Sammy McGowan ’07 said.

“We want them to feel more a part of the community. It’s a compromise we made.”

“Even though the people who know you best should do the voting, the head prefects should be able to relate to the entire student body,” said junior class representative Emma Kaplan ’08. The changes will not affect senior prefect and class represntative elections.