The Four Winds School Independent School District

[jwoodie]

First person narratives are often used to establish (undeserved) authority in the subject matter.

 

[Seymour Flops]

First person narratives are often used to establish (undeserved) authority in the subject matter.

1). Can you give some examples?

2) What does that have to do with this thread?

 

[Seymour Flops]

West Junior High's first (and last) Homecoming Queen.

This story is a crazy series of events that actually happened. To recap about West Junior's demographics: The student body is nearly entirely Hispanic, with the majority being the children of first gen immigrants. But they are by no means homogeneous. As in any other junior High, they have sportos, motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads, and also cheerleaders, athletes, and those who hate cheerleaders and athletes.

About two years before the pandemic, the new principal decided that since we have cheerleaders and jocks, we should have a homecoming dance and the students should elect a queen. This principal is constantly looking for ways to fundraise off the students, such as offering them "pay to play" events and "pay to wear slides," etc. She decided that students could vote for one dollar. Per vote, with no limit on the number of votes. To avoid any appearance of impropriety, she decided that the cheerleaders would not be eligible to run, and would be in charge of selling the votes and counting them.

One 8th grade special education student, whose disability was behavioral, decided to run. I'll call her Abi. Abi ran with a dangerous crownd, she weren't too pretty, she weren't too proud. Her older siblings had all been kids with behavior problems. Anyway, no one thought she had a chance.

Then our young robotics teacher was MC at the pre-homecoming pep rally. He had asked the principal permission to hold a trivia contest and give prizes. The principal said yes, but forgot to ask what the prizes would be. It turned out to be cash. Like twenty and fifty dollar bills. The principal was appalled.

It turns out that Abi, who had never passed a standardized test since third grade, was an expert at trivia about current recording artists. She won first prize, and two of her friends won second and third.

They bought ninety votes for Abi.

Seeing the expression on the cheerleaders' faces, when she and her friends exercised their franchise, Abi began to suspect that they would rig the election against her (remind you of anyone?). She told her mom, who went to school to confront the principal. The principal assured her that the election would be fair. Later, Abi and her friends started a fight with some cheerleaders they found in the locker room.

Anyway, the cheerleaders counted the votes in front of the student body. They looked pretty surly for cheerleaders. Abi won the election by a wide margin. Few students were interested in spending a dollar to vote for homecoming queen. Most of the non-Abi votes were obvious joke votes, for particularly obnoxious kids. She "reigned" only about an hour before the principal decided that she could not be Homecoming Queen since she was barred from attending the Homecoming Dance due to the fight.

Thus, the mother's worst fears were realized. I don't think there's a lesson in there for anyone but the young teacher who thought he was Monty Hall, but there it is.