With presidential elections coming up fast, people are hyper aware of what the government is doing, and everyone is looking for someone to talk politics with.

Add this to the fact that schools are overseen by the government, and it’s no surprise that we get into politics in school. However, no one has specified what can and cannot be talked about, and what class time teachers can use to talk about their personal opinions.

Freshman Tori Hill said she thinks teachers should be able to voice their political opinions in the classroom if it’s not disrupting class time.

“It’s their opinion.” Hill said, “They can talk about it to other teachers, but if it’s taking up class time, then you should be teaching.”

It’s spelled out in the First Amendment that teachers have the right to express their opinions, but in many cases teachers are asked to refrain from being too opinionated.

In other schools around the country, there is much more political unrest in the student body, due to elections. however, we have seen less of this at BVHS.

“That’s wrong, and I’m glad we don’t say those sort of things here,” tennis player  Sivaanii Arunachalam said in responce to increased racism in schools since the election.

Closer to home, Arunachalam was asked if the federal government influencing school lunch was overreach. “I think it is. In sixth grade, we used to be able to have Propel, but then they took it away from us.”

Tori Hill said she thought the same thing, saying outside vendors should come in to sell food. This would boost the economy and give back to the community, keeping everything local. She said it would be a whole lot easier if the government let the school take care of it.

The government influences our school both with policies, and with political points of view brought in by teachers, and students are tentative on the role that

these things should play at school.

Arunachalam said, “I think they should [influence our school] at some extent but there’s a certain line they shouldn’t cross.”