Excellence Award Replaces Homecoming Queen at CHS
Homecoming Queen has been a tradition at Chelsea High School for countless years, but a recent Student Council decision has replaced this widespread tradition causing division amongst students and parents alike.
From this Homecoming and onward, Chelsea students, both male and female, can be donned with the Chelsea Excellence Award. This award will be taking the place of the Homecoming Queen.
The purpose of this award is to honor students who have successfully and extraordinarily presented what it means to be a Chelsea student. These qualities are positive, rather than some of degrading attributes previously relied on in the election process. The award will be a plaque, not a crown, given for the winner’s attributes as a person-community involvement, academic prowess, leadership ability, etc.- instead of what the Student Council fears Homecoming had become in the past.
“We don’t want one of the biggest awards at our school to be associated with ‘pretty’ or ‘popular’ stereotypes or to be limited to a specific category of students,” wrote Student Council President, Drew Vanderspool, in a letter to students’ parents concerning the change. It was just one of many reasons that led Student Council to the decision. In the video announcing the change to the student body, it’s hard to ignore how many students and teachers emphasized the fact that people were elected as jokes or pranks.
But how will this election process make anything different?
Firstly, nominations will now include both males and females of the student body. However, even though it now includes all the student body on the voting list, students may still opt out of being voted for if they choose.
And to ensure that students will not be elected as a prank anymore, when electing a student, each vote must also include a small description on why they chose the student, assuring that elections are truthful and fair.
Unlike the Homecoming Queen, the Chelsea Excellence Award can be put on to college resumes. Instead of calling attention to someone who may not want it, the votes can help a student’s future. The risks are much lower of students mocking each other with the new process of voting, and the new meaning behind the award.
With a unanimous vote of 38-0 from Student Council (with two abstentions), we can assume that this change to the Homecoming Queen tradition won’t be changing back anytime soon. So as Homecoming week kicks into full gear, all genders at Chelsea High School should be watching the elections.
This year, Homecoming, including court elections, will be inclusive to all students, and will reserved for someone who represents what we want Chelsea to represent.
Hailey Castleberry • Oct 22, 2018 at 8:42 pm
Then we also have to keep in mind the same people who run for student council are well known and likable, two traits that seem to run through almost all nominations. Peer pressure is something this award doesn’t, and can’t, try to eradicate, but they are trying to change the meaning behind the award. So blaming the council and the award for the peer pressuring and “bias” is just not valid, since it is in the end to student’s vote on the nominations. And if student council members tend to get elected often, maybe there’s a reason for that. We gotta remember we also put the student council up there too.
Potato Guy • Oct 12, 2018 at 12:48 pm
It may seem biased but I feel like simply the students that are being elected also happen to be in student council because a lot of the students in student council would be considered “excellent”. How else would they have gotten onto student council without the support of their grade in the first place?
Anonymous • Sep 25, 2018 at 2:31 pm
Hello there, I am a student at CHS and while I think there are some good ideas going into this change like ending the bullying of nominating people as a joke, but I think there are some major flaws too. This was the first year Chelsea changed the Homecoming Queen Award so obviously some things are going to not be as good as they could be. I did not agree with the fact that almost all of the students who were nominees were on student council. I don’t think this would have been the case if it was still the Homecomiung Queen. My friend and I counted during the pep rally and 14 out of the 17 people nominated are on student council currently. That is an outrageous amount. I Don’t think it is right for the people who made the change to the system to be able to win all of the votes. I feel like if you are not a part of student council then your chances of even getting nominated are very slim. And I heard from a friend that everyone who was even thinking about voting against it was being pressured into voting yes. Is that what we want our student council doing? Our supposed “Leaders of the school” showing others that it is okay to pressure someone into something they don’t stand for? That isn’t what I want my high school to look like.