OPINION: When critical discussions start, Alaska students’ voices are shut down. This must change.

“I don’t think students understand that they never did have a voice on the board,” said Republican Rep. Ron Johnson, the only member of the public to speak in favor of the board removing student representative Ben Kolendo from the Matanuska-Susitna this September. Kolendo, despite the public backlash, was sidelined from the board, losing his ability to be recognized or participate in the meeting as a member. To students around the state, and even to me, as a former Alaska school board student representative, it seemed like a dark move, one made intentionally to silence the region’s high school students.

Alaska has one of the most outspoken student governments that I know of. I’ve watched many high school students in Alaska push forward change and accomplish incredible things. I’ve also watched as the voices of Alaska students are silenced by higher positions of power. When the important discussions begin, students are removed from the conversation, despite being the group most heavily impacted by education decisions.

In contrast to the comment made by Johnson, Alaska students do have a voice. The majority of Alaska school boards allow student representatives, many of whom can make an “advisory vote.” Furthermore, if students are determined to make a school, district, or even statewide change, student governments from around the state come together biannually to add an aspect of “mass support” to resolutions of change, that can then be used to push for action. The student government conferences are a source of student empowerment and could be a great mechanism for change. However, in the end, the resolutions on the most important topics are often ignored when presented to legislators and school boards.

Throughout my time at the Alaska Association of Student Governments, students would talk to legislators, Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Sen. Dan Sullivan, and local politicians, all of whom told us that we were making change; we didn’t realize how powerful our voices were, but we were making change and a difference. Yet, when crucial issues were brought up, the student voices on them were shut down. A Mount Edgecumbe student’s resolution on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Alaska was passed unanimously by the association of student governments, only to receive no response from Dunleavy. When the Alaska Board of Education this fall voted to ban trans girls from women’s sports in high schools, the only member to vote against it was the student representative, Felix Myers. Despite mass protests by students and the public, the Mat-Su Board voted to remove their student representative.

Students are the largest stakeholders in these conversations. A high school education is a determining factor in someone’s life. It changes their college or career decisions and their life path. Students need a voice in Alaska’s education system because they’re the ones who will be most impacted by it. And from what I saw throughout my high school years by attending student government conferences, Alaska high school students want to be a part of the conversation, and they’re ready for it. So why are they shut down? It’s a question I wish I could answer, but I can’t.

I now live in New York City, attending college at Columbia University, an institution facing the same questions: To what extent will students push to be heard, and how can student voices be protected? I’ve realized that this isn’t an issue that Alaska alone faces, but an issue that both high schools and colleges around the world are facing. It leads me to wonder: How would our educational institutions change by implementing more power to student voices? By protecting student’s right to speech? As a student, I believe it would lead to a better system of education; one that prioritized the rights and voices of the students. Because, ultimately, the students — the ones who have the most to gain or lose from their education — should always be the institution’s priority.

Callia Fielding is a young Alaskan from Skagway, currently attending Columbia University in New York City.

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