Senior superlatives – the be all and end all to our high school lives. Not really, however, students felt quite pressured when they had to vote during the same student resource time (SRT) period they had to write their senior quotes.
Many students were not aware they had to make their superlative votes at that time until they got to SRT that day. Additionally, some seniors felt that it could have been beneficial if they had been told the categories ahead of time so they would have time to think about their decisions.
“It kind of came out of nowhere and I didn’t really have time to think about who I would vote for certain categories, so I ended up throwing out an answer just to have an answer,” senior Kamden Deckard said. “A lot of them I had to leave blank because I had no clue who to pick.”
“I think that we didn’t get enough advanced notice beforehand of what the superlatives would be and when we would be selecting them,” senior Eric Branigin said.
Among these complaints, people were also concerned that the “Cutest Couple” had only the choice of a boy and girl rather than including same sex couples. Another related concern was how students would nominate someone who doesn’t identify as a boy or a girl in all of the categories.
“The cutest couple thing bugged me, and I know it bugged a lot of people. Obviously, [the yearbook staff] weren’t coming from a place of malice when they did it, but it felt like they didn’t really put much thought into it,” senior Haley Paulin said.
After talking to the Gothic Yearbook staff about these concerns, they stated that they had no intentions to be discriminatory, and that if people did put a same sex couple in the “Cutest Couple” category, they could certainly be chosen and included if they received the most votes. They were quick to assure that it was an oversight, and from now on, they plan to list the options as simply “Person one” and “Person two.”
