With the contrasting perspectives between student body and the administration, ASB often gets caught in the middle. Running events that are pleasing to both the administration and ASB can be difficult, and run the risk of prompting negative reactions among the student body, ASB representative sophomore Ellie Roberts said.

“Admin’s main concern is making sure everyone feels welcome and comfortable at events,” Roberts said. “From their view it is a very smart thing, but I think something that is very popular among students is having to do those out-of-your-comfort-zone kind of things.”

Many of these “out-of-your-comfort-zone” situations are the various activities ASB comes up with for rallies that often get turned down.

For example, this year, Principal Brent Daniels said the administration did not think having a rap battle at the winter rally was a good idea because it could create rivalry between the contestants and disrupt connections between the grades.

The administration wants to be more inclusive of all grades, so this is one reason the proposals submitted to ASB do not get approved, Daniels said.

Officially, it is Assistant Principal Irma Muñoz’s duty to approve ASB’s ideas.

“This is my first year supervising ASB,”  Muñoz said-. “Sometimes I do second guess myself and that’s where I am learning with ASB and the other administrators of what should be passed and what shouldn’t.”

Although ASB and the administration do not always see eye to eye, ASB leadership faculty advisor Mercedes Foster said that in all her years of advising ASB, this year the administration has been extremely thorough in explaining themselves to the students when they turn down ideas.

“Admin has never said no without giving an explanation,” Foster said.

Muñoz said that she  often tries to compromise with ASB members if she turns an idea down.

“My impression [of ASB] has been that they feel comfortable coming to me and asking why I deny ideas,” said Muñoz.

Roberts said that despite this, having popular or fun ideas being rejected can be difficult for ASB because of how the student body reacts.

“I think, to the student body, they immediately want to place the blame on ASB,” Roberts said. “But what we do reflects very publicly on everyone and if there is any negativity it can lead to a domino effect of a lot of things not being able to happen anymore.”

ASB treasurer senior Colin Dixon said the administration does not have much  choice but to exclude ideas that could be dangerous or cause accidents.

“They are paranoid because so much has gone wrong,” Dixon said. “Something bad that may have happened at a rally say twenty years ago still wouldn’t be okay today because they predict it will happen again.”

Foster has also noticed a trend in the student body for blaming ASB for rejected ideas, while Roberts said that the negativity from the student body can be very frustrating.

“A lot of people immediately assume that ASB isn’t even trying to get things done and that’s not the case,” Roberts said. “There is so much behind the scenes regarding organization and safety issues,  so not everything is possible.”

ASB’s main focus is making both staff and students happy, promoting school spirit and creating a positive environment, Roberts said.

“It’s all about promoting positive school spirit and developing activities that encourage students to be positive role models for others,” Muñoz said.

Foster said ASB does a great job of being open minded.

“They are so supportive and they do such a good job of always hearing me even when I know what I’m saying isn’t what they want to hear,” Foster said.