America, a country founded on the voice of the people. It’s common sense to most that this trait is found throughout American foundations, including public schools like Manhattan High.

Groups like Student Council are centered on letting the voice of the students be heard — that students have a say.

But, as the mascot controversy moves to the next phase, MHS students were upset at the lack of communication from administration and leaders. At Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting, MHS Student Council and school administration recommended the wolf for the official physical mascot based on a voting process many students considered warped.

The voting process has been long and tiring, and in the eyes of many students, misleading. Voting began with an online survey that students took; however the accuracy of this vote could have been swayed due to the fact that students could vote as many times as they pleased.

The next round of votes was more focused on narrowing down a mascot character.

In the final vote on Nov. 30, students could pick either “No Mascot,” “Bison” or “Wolf.” By the end of voting, 505 students were found to be in favor of “No Mascot,” making them the majority. But, 448 students voted for “Wolf” and 441 voted for “Bison,” and when added together, these students become the majority, making 63 percent of the student body in favor of a physical mascot. Thus, the wolf was recommended.

The decision to count the votes this way was not the decision of one party, but rather a combination of StuCo executives and administrators. Regardless, many students are angry. This is not necessarily due to the fact that there will be a physical mascot, but that their voices were kept out of the decision.  

Though those in charge were praised by Principal Greg Hoyt for their transparency in the process, many students feel that those in charge of the voting simply found a loophole to ensure a mascot was recommended, and took to Twitter to voice their thoughts.

It is the agreement of The Mentor editorial board that, while we understand why votes were counted the way they were, we do not understand why voting officials chose to confuse the student body for so long.

The reality of the situation is that officials failed to communicate the truth regarding the voting process and data collection to students, and basically they confused and hurt a large part of the student body.

Right now, there is a conflicting student body and administration, the two most important things to a school. While school is not a democracy — administration has the choice as to whether or not they listen to student opinion — it is the students’ school as well as administrators’. When both parties come together and actually communicate with one another, it is amazing the tranquility and peace one can find, but for some reason at MHS that’s not happening.

There is a very clear and simple fix to this problem: communication and honesty — the base of every functioning institution or organization. Whenever major decisions like this are being made, be as honest as possible, let students know when half way through a project a decision is made to change the way it’s processed and let students know how their voices will be interpreted. Let administration know when something needs to change. Just communicate; it’s simple.