Everett Middle School held its first student council election in several years. Yet when the results were tallied, this San Francisco principal decided the candidates elected were “too white.”
Elections were held on Oct. 10, but on Oct. 14 principal Lena Van Haren sent an email out to parents saying the results were being ignored, without being made public, because those elected did not reflect the diversity of the school’s students.
The population of Everett Middle School is over 80% non-white.
Students who had run for office were left wondering if they had won or lost, parents were equally confused, and the story spread quickly in the city of San Francisco and beyond.
“It’s not OK for a school that is really, really diverse to have the student representatives majority white.”
Everett Middle School principal Lena Van Haren
The Washington Post reported that Van Haren issued a statement:
“When we reviewed the results of our Associated Student Body (ASB) elections on Friday, October 9th, we saw that it was not fully representative of our school population,” Van Haren said in a statement. “I made the decision to pause on sharing the results with the students in order to capitalize on a teachable moment. I wanted to have a conversation with all of the candidates and ask for their ideas to make sure that all voices and groups are represented in our ASB. In retrospect, I understand how this decision to pause created concerns. Today I visited classrooms to announce the winners of the elections.”
Van Haren stated she never wanted to cancel the election. “We paused to have a conversation,” she told The Chronicle, adding, “I never, ever said we wouldn’t share the results or they weren’t good enough.This is middle school. It’s not a presidential election. It was not about hurting democracy or putting diversity over democracy.” She continued, “It’s not OK for a school that is really, really diverse to have the student representatives majority white. The easy thing would have been to announce the results and move on. I intentionally did not choose the easy way because this is so important.”
She said she wanted to wait until there was a plan — created with student input — to increase diversity among student leaders, perhaps by adding positions.
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