The Story Behind It
“When I first got here seven years ago, I tried to go find where our Orem High constitution was,” said Mike Browning, the principal of OHS. “Couldn’t find anything.”
“When I realized we didn’t have one, I started talking to student council saying, ‘Hey, we need someone to start tackling this, to start putting it together.’ […] I literally went through a couple of student councils in a row where it wasn’t getting any movement on it.”
“I finally found one that was probably over thirty years old. […] And the hard part was it no longer necessarily represented the values and the decisions that we wanted to make from here on out. So OSUM, kind of said, ‘Hey, we’ll tackle this.’ And it started out with about four members and a couple of student council kids. Last year they started really tackling it. And it’s been a long process. But we finally got it ratified and put into place.”
“I would hope […] we don’t ever get to a point where there’s not an active constitution in the rest of the history of Orem High.”
Why A Constitution
“[For] the last ten, fifteen years it’s kind of been up to every individual student body leader,” Mr Browning said. Leaving next year, Browning is grateful the next principal can read the constitution: “ ‘Ah, this is how they do it and why.’ ”
The main purpose of the constitution was to have “more continuity and consistency in what are we doing.”
The document identifies roles within student government, even specifying relations between different groups–like OSUM and student council. Since the document states who has authority in what, as Browning said, “It puts a check and balance in place,” between different groups. Change takes more than administration, student council, or OSUM; it’s a combined effort.
It’s about common goals and fixing problems. According to Browning: “It’s important for us to share our opinions, whether we agree or not. The more we can come together […] and say, ‘Here’s the consensus of what we do agree to do,’ the better we are. And that’s what the constitution does for me. It gives me a ‘here’s what we agreed to’.” Problems are easier to address and people easier unified when there’s something to fall back on. To Browning, the constitution is common ground.
It also lays out in writing how procedures should be done. For Browning, written word ensures “we, as a school, are agreeing upon processes that help take us to the next level.”
Such procedures include voting for student council or consequences from breaking student policies.
Browning gave the figurative example of a student council member committing a felony. The consequence could result in being removed from office. He explained, “Any judge is going to look and go […] I see your students would have been notified, because it’s in your constitution.” Because it’s published–consequences should-be common knowledge–consequences are noted in advance and are thus, more fair.
In summary, “We’ve got to give them notice, we’ve got to have input.”
The Status
In the words of an administrator, “Is it perfect? No. Are we perfect at following it yet? No. But are we improving? Yes, dramatically. […] It’s about this is the Orem community and this is what we believe.”
Emma Jacob
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