In today’s society, it is more common for men to hold a leadership position such as presidents, principals, or CEOs. So why are there few boys getting involved in our student government? ASB, Associative Student Body, has been a leadership class in the San Rafael High School community for more than 30 years. This class serves as an outlet to let students take charge.

Jordan Locke, a senior at SRHS, has taken the head leadership position as ASB President, along with Caitlin Chow-Ise, who is vice ASB president. One thing that they do is help lead the class to donate to specific causes, such as providing relief through donations to the Paradise fire victims here in California. They have also done fundraisers for the senior class and even help out underclassmen with their fundraising. They coordinate many events, such as dances and try to be as inclusive as possible.

One thing that stands out is the number of boys in the leadership class. Five out of the thirty-four students in the class are boys.  

Andrew Deleon, the senior class vice president at SRHS, says, “There should be more male  representation so that we can have perspectives from both genders, also, so students don’t complain and that way our class could have an equal voice.”

Jordan had this to say about the fact that there were only five boys enrolled in the class, “I find it interesting that it’s all guys in politics and any government platform, but there are barely any guys in our student government.”

ASB students stated that for the past five years there’s always been a female president for the class.

Jordan also gave her opinion on whether or not there should be more guys in the class; her response was, “I think there should be more people who care, rather than just more boys. I even think it would be better and more important if there were more students of color or more diverse backgrounds, that way we have a way of including everyone from the school.”

The current ASB students bring up the topic of diversity.  

Doris Martinez, a senior at SRHS, thinks that the lack of diversity in the ASB classroom is a big problem. The reason that ASB exist is to be the students’ voice, but that can’t happen if the majority of the class is Hispanic or Caucasian. SRHS is a diverse school, but other students from different backgrounds are being under-represented in the student body’s voice.

Doris says, “I feel like we are not representing the school as a whole. I think it would be cool if there were a change in our class specifically a change in diversity where our class could attract people who come from different backgrounds.”

Along with the ASB students, Mrs.Verheecke, who teaches the leadership class, try their best to be as inclusive as possible. They threw events like the ‘Baile,’ a more Latin-based school dance, so newcomers felt more included.

Kendy Deleon, a junior at SRHS, is working hard to adjust to the new language and culture here in the United States. When asked what she thought about how the ASB classroom was doing regarding diversity she said, “I think they are doing good, we are all working together in this class and in a way combating sexism because of how many girls there are. I think they should try to reach out to other minorities in our school such as the Asian communities because for some of them it’s hard to understand the English language.”

Recently, they had a workshop with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to combat hate and try to come up with ways on how to be more inclusive, whether that be for males or students with different backgrounds at this school. ASB wants everyone to have a voice; the ultimate goal is to make everyone feel like a part of the community as well as feeling represented.