After a successful year and graduation for the class of 2017, the current seniors left Sage Creek last year muddled in confusion as to who their class president was.  

Last May, the class of 2018 voted for Darius Rahmanian to be its senior class president. The election between Rahmanian and Lea Marquez  was heavily campaigned for throughout the school during the last few weeks of school.

However, over the summer, Rahmanian was removed from the position due to an inability to meet the initial application requirements. This was due to an oversight on his application.

“[Rahmanian] shouldn’t have been able to run for office to begin with because he didn’t initially meet the qualifications for being able to run for office…it was an oversight on my part,” ASB advisor Danny Kung said.

Rahmanian understands the events that took place over the summer.

“The administration was only doing what was right, and they were only doing what was right [for] the students of Sage Creek. That is their job, I have nothing against their job,” Rahmanian said.  

Those who voted for Rahmanian were confused, as were the students who voted for Marquez: why is Brennan representing the seniors?

Before officially running for class council, ASB outlined several requirements for those in the election. Of course, these were meant to be checked for every candidate. In this case, however, they were not.

“We had to go and we had to remove him from office because he was not supposed to be able to even run for office to begin with,” Kung said.

In the weeks after the mistake was caught, Kung and administration worked together to find a solution.

“The decision was between myself and administration when we went back to look at all of the facts,” Kung said.

The decision to appoint a new president, however, is the duty of the ASB executive council.

“The ASB executive council has the opportunity to place who they feel is a suitable candidate into executive class council,” Kung said.  

In other words, ASB maintains the power to place whomever they feel the best about into a class council, as stated in Article 3, Section V of the ASB Constitution: “In the event a position is left vacant after election, the other members of the ASB Executive Council shall appoint an officer by conducting a majority vote.”

Kung and administration dealt with this matter quickly and quietly, all before school ended last year. It was for this reason that the senior class did not have the chance to re-vote for their desired presidential candidate.

“There was no time for the revote with graduation coming up, with finals coming up, and with senior finals coming up prior to that,” Kung said.

If there had been a revote, Marquez would have automatically gone into office since it was only her and Rahmanian running in the first place.

The mystery remains: where did Brennan come in?

Marquez was originally supposed to be senior class president, but before taking on the position, she wanted the senior class to be aware of what happened with the election.

Marquez said she didn’t feel comfortable taking the position unless the senior class was alerted of the change. Over the summer, the executive council chose instead to appoint Brennan as president and Marquez as vice president.

Rahmanian understands the reasons for his removal, but feels frustrated at the lack of open communication with the senior class.

“The most awful part is that they didn’t even tell the seniors,” Rahmanian said. 

The current senior council is busy planning a year full of events for the class of 2018.

“Right now we’re in the middle of trying to work out our grad night. We’re working on finding some fundraisers to raise money for our class so we have the money to put on these events, like, we did Ice-Town, so we’re just trying to make sure we have at least one [fundraiser] a month, if not more,” Brennan said.

* The original sentence, “Along with administration, the ASB executive council was involved in the decision to remove Rahmanian from office” was changed to “The decision to appoint a new president, however, is the duty of the ASB executive council” in order to reflect the accuracy of the story. We regret the error.