Dear Editor,

Thank you for including the article “Controversial homecoming court” by Gloria Cheng to the online section of The Epitaph. While I do agree with the point of view expressed in the article regarding the pattern of Homecoming Court nominations, I would like to offer the opposing view for the student nominations solution provided.

In a student nomination system, often the students chosen are the more well-known, not necessarily the students that have impacted the Homestead community the most. In the past, Homestead has had a student nomination system. However, by talking with some of the senior staff members, I found out that the system was replaced with the teacher nomination system because of “joke” nominations used to ostracize and make fun of students who were less known in the Homestead community.

Furthermore, teachers see a unique side of students, including how that student responds to authority, group work, and challenges in an academic setting. While this side is a different perspective than the student’s classmates interact with that person, the information deduced by the teachers often shows how the student is overall.

The student nomination system is just as flawed as the teacher nomination system, and thus is not a solution to the Homecoming Court nomination patterns.

Instead, Homestead should employ a two step nomination system similar to Monta Vista’s system where students vote for nominees which are reviewed by teachers who then narrow down the top 15 nominations by students to the top 10 which will become the Homecoming Court.

-Isabella Muscettola