When I first joined marching band, I became known as ‘the ASB kid.’ I even got asked: “So, you’re actually popular?” I would laugh it off because I don’t see myself as “popular” or particularly outgoing. But in my four years in ASB, I’ve noticed that these comments reflect how ASB is often perceived: a one-dimensional popular clique.

In all honesty, it used to be that. The exclusive group of juniors and seniors that had been together since before covid tended to focus more on enjoying their last year together than inclusion.

Ironically, the ASB motto is ‘making you a part of the blue.’ The purpose of ASB is not only to represent the student body, but to find ways to include everyone — both students and staff — in our school community. Even the ASB acronym spells it out: ‘Associated Student Body.’ By definition, everyone at LAHS is part of ASB, but in practice, the ASB class is distanced from the rest of the student body as a result of its perception. Recent administrative changes have only exacerbated this effect.

It started with the transition from Ms. Woolfolk as ASB advisor to Mr. Betancur between the 2021–22 and 2022–23 school years. The difference was immediately obvious: Mr. B felt comfortable sticking close to constitutional rules, whereas Ms. Woolfolk felt confident enough to bend them. To be fair, he was obligated to work with a group of students he didn’t choose, so more often than not, his values and ours didn’t align. An example of this is when he addressed our class a mere day into ASB camp: holding a “Welcome back to school shawty” poster, he strongly recommended that we steer clear of language that might elicit an urban dictionary search from adults.

After that, administrative changes have been constant. Beginning the 2023–24 school year, Ms. Satterwhite retired as principal, bringing in Ms. Runeare. Then halfway through first semester, Ms. Bellamy became ASB Advisor in place of Mr. B. Most recently, Ms. Alvarado is filling the role of ASB Advisor for the 2024–25 school year.

The external results of these transitions boil down to the games we host and different rules we follow from year to year.

The internal results are messier.

Each year the advisor changes, we have a near-completely new ASB class that fits a different definition of ‘leadership.’ A new class is another year of reteaching not only how to plan events like rallies, spirit weeks, and every other activity in between, but how to be a leader. That’s not something we can teach in 3 days of ASB camp.

Beyond that, because of new rules implemented by administrators, we’ve had to restructure our planning process almost entirely to accommodate expense rules, budget constraints, conflicts and concerns — and being told ‘no’ a lot. The new administration became this faceless (and some would argue fun-less) figure that only told us what we couldn’t do and the new rules we needed to follow.

To say that ASB has been having a hard time is an understatement. We’ve been stuck between expectations of the administration and suggestions from students when in reality we can’t please everyone.

After every event, we come together and reflect on how we can improve. We consider factors like organization, planning, and execution, but our main metric of success is your participation. How many students showed up? Did they have fun? What did the staff think?

I can’t speak for everyone, but I hope I speak for most of us when I say we genuinely care about what you think. We want to host events you’ll enjoy, not ignore during announcements or ‘like’ and scroll past. We want you to look forward to our activities and bring your friends or make new ones — at the very least, we want to make you smile.

I understand that many of the changes are out of our control, but no one can honestly expect ASB to stay the same and do our best when we’re not given the chance to. When we’re questioned and mocked at every mistake. When we’re not listened to.

ASB might seem like this far-off, unreachable group of popular kids or a class of loud, unorganized teenagers, but the reality is that we’re just like you: trying our best.

And what ASB really needs right now is help. Not only from students, but teachers and administrators alike to work together and accomplish our mission. Recent changes have created a lot of obstacles for us, but we’ve adapted to them and don’t want to lose sight of what we set out to do in the first place. We’ll try our best to listen to everyone, but there’s only so much listening we can do before we need returned effort and respect.

We can only do that with your help — after all, you’re part of the blue.