The Student Government Association(SGA) is a facade. It holds no actual power and serves to do nothing but keep up the illusion that we the students hold any actual say in the affairs of this school. We do not; our education, our lives, and our futures are decided by administrators, bureaucrats and businesspeople whom we never see, whom we never confide in, and whom see us not as unique individual beings, but as part of a machine to operate.

Through SGA, Wilson students should have a say in how Wilson is run. Unfortunately, the organization, and through it the Wilson student body, has no influence in the affairs of Wilson.

According to one former SGA member, all they can really to do is, “plan events such as homecoming.” But even then, they cannot plan unless approved by the administration. In reality, the SGA isn’t even even a “glorified party planning committee,” as they were described in a Beacon article last year. The SGA is nothing but a club to put on a college application.

Take Yondr bags for example. Were we ever consulted on the matter? Plenty of students here acknowledge that we have a cell phone problem. In my Mass Media class we did an entire project on Yondr bags in which we interviewed students for their thoughts on Yondr. While many were against the policy itself, they acknowledged that we do have a concentration problem at Wilson and many offered their own solutions to our troubles such as having a bin at the front of the room, placing phones in backpacks during class, or deducting participation points if a teacher catches you on your phone during class. All three of these policies could have been implemented easily and efficiently and have already happened in some classes. Yet neither us or the people we elected to represent us had any say. We found out about the policy and could do nothing about it.

There is no reason why DCPS, the school board, and the Wilson administration should not have relative control over the schools and the internal policy at each of the schools. The problem we face is that students have NO control and the adults have COMPLETE control. What is required is a balance of power between students who understand what we need and adults who have what we want.