In the United States, many states allow for the people of the state to kick an elected official out of office with a system known as a recall. Recently, California had a recall of Governor Gavin Newsom that failed. This raises the question if high schools should have a similar process for student governments. 

Schools should not have a recall system for student government as it would be mean spirited and be nothing more than a popularity contest. Elections for student government as they are right now are nothing more than a popularity contest, with each candidate trying to give away the most stuff to sway voters. Adding a recall system would do nothing more than force the student government to give people more free things in order to keep the student body’s favor.

 Opponents of recall call them costly and mean spirited, and if this was done at the high school level, it would definitely be mean spirited as people would call for recalls if someone that they didn’t like became the student president. It would also waste the time of the students and the student government as setting up another election in the middle of the school year would mean hearing the new candidates speeches, and gathering the votes from the students.

If a member of student government did do something that would qualify them for a recall, such as something against the school rules, then they would be removed from office by the administration. The only thing the recall system would do is waste the time of the students and the student government.