A Revere High School (RHS) junior created a club that gives students the opportunity to voice their opinions and influence issues within the school.
Student Voices is a new club that advocates for student representation at RHS. The club’s objective is to give students legitimate influence on various issues affecting the school. Gabi Iler, founder and president of the club, explained where her inspiration to start Student Voices originated.
“Last year, when NHS hosted a meeting . . . where they were showing the superintendent candidates around. . . we didn’t actually get to give any input on who the superintendent was, or what we thought about the candidates. . . . So I was thinking it’s pretty important to me that the students have the ability to influence issues that are gonna actually influence them,” Iler said.
Doug Faris, RHS Principal and adviser of Student Voices, was immediately enthusiastic when Iler pitched her idea to him. Faris explained that students being able to voice their own opinions on school issues aligns with his core beliefs of what a high school should be.
“High school kids are transitioning to adulthood. For our juniors and seniors, they’re going to be on their own soon so they need to know things that are going on in our community,” Faris said.
Faris said that initially, Iler focused on broader issues, contributing to topics such as school policies and community activities. He instead encouraged her to begin by directly communicating with the student body, and craft a plan from the opinions gathered. Faris suggested a different form of communication that Iler could use to give every student at RHS an opportunity to engage in the conversations happening within Student Voices.
“She really kind of wanted to start with the focus of what was going on at the board meetings. . . but then I encouraged her to kind of reach out to our student population through a Google Form,” Faris said.
At one of the meetings, the members discussed ways to make school lunches more inclusive to students with food allergies and restrictions. Following Faris’ suggestion, Iler sent out a Google Form to the entire student body to gather opinions on gluten-free lunches. The students concluded that it would be more beneficial for students who are gluten intolerant to have a larger variety that they can choose in the cafeteria.
To begin the process of changing the lunch menu, Iler coordinated with staff members in the district that could provide assistance and insight towards developing gluten free options.
“I just recently had a meeting with the district nutrition director Aaron Gnap about including more gluten-free foods in the cafeteria,” Iler said.
In addition to Iler’s role as president, Student Voices has three other board members who coordinate action within the club. Junior Student Voices board member Sophie Gehring said that the Google Forms sent to the school help determine if the students want a specific change to take place.
Gehring also explained that the work being done by Student Voices connected with her personally, and she expressed her excitement to see progress towards more dietary inclusivity within the school.
“My family also has food allergies like that, and I think it would be really great to have more food options for everyone,” Gehring said.
Faris said that he will communicate with Gnap about the logistics of having gluten free options for lunch. He expressed that Iler taking the initiative to talk to Gnap was a good step forward for Student Voices.
“That was a good moment for her, because I feel like she was able to be heard by the food and service person,” Faris said.
While Iler manages communication with Faris and Gnap, the club’s board members work to support Iler’s efforts and lead within Student Voices. Junior Erika Boggs explained some of the responsibilities that come with the board position.
”We go to the official board meetings of the school about once a month, and then we lead the club meetings if Gabi isn’t here,” Boggs said.
Boggs explained that when attending board meetings, Student Voices board members listen to the meeting and consider the topics discussed. They then craft their own meeting agenda for Student Voices, and gather perspective from the other club members.
“We talk about what happened at the most recent board meeting and what that means for the students here. We can also take the students’ advice and [goals] to the board meetings,” Boggs said.
Gehring noted that at one of the meetings, the students discussed a different, more serious topic—the school bathrooms. The group considered what action they can take to establish more appropriate behavior in the restrooms.
“We talked about vaping in the bathrooms and how the vape detectors just don’t work,” Gehring said.
Iler said that after the meetings she relays the student’s opinions to Faris. They talk through everything said at the meetings and determine the next step to creating legitimate change.
“I go to Mr. Faris and we talk it through, and he tells me the staff perspective and the administration perspective, and we come [up with] a . . . compromise,” Iler said.
Iler explained that while some issues are exclusively handled by administration, her goal for Student Voices is to highlight a student perspective in as many areas as possible. Iler expressed that currently, club meetings average about fifteen attendees, but she hopes to see membership grow to achieve a larger consensus of student opinion.
“If more and more people join, then we can have more diverse perspectives. Another thing would be to have everyone fill out the Google Form when I send it out, instead of just a few people,” Iler said.
Iler also highlighted another one of her goals for Student Voices—influencing neighboring schools to start similar groups.
“On a personal level, . . . [I hope to] spread it to other schools, [to] set up the infrastructure to have this be a club like Copley Student Voices or Highland Student Voices where they can have an outlet to share opinions and advocate for the student’s voice,” Iler said.
Iler, as well as the club’s board members, all hope to see increased attendance within Student Voices, and strive to continue creating change within RHS.
