Palo Alto High School senior Duncan Sego is advocating to eliminate the administration’s role in the selection of student board representatives through a petition he started on Feb. 20. 

The idea came to Sego when he learned about the Palo Alto High administration’s extensive influence during the screening process, a feature Gunn High School’s selection does not have. His petition description states that administration has previously prevented prospective candidates from running in the past out of concern for controversy.

“When I heard there was this screening process, and that Brent Kline was sitting there, I was kind of amazed,” Sego said. “So I was like, ‘Why do we have this at Paly when all it’s doing is limiting student voice?’”

Through his petition, Sego hopes to garner enough support to bring the issue to the school’s Associated Student Body and push for a change in the ASB Constitution. 

“Once I reach 400 signatures, I plan to approach ASB and show them that this is clearly a student-wide movement to try to get our demands through,” Sego said. “The demands are just removing two clauses in the Constitution that outlined the screening process, and once that’s approved, it will operate exactly like Gunn High’s does.”

Sego said that his petition is a crucial step in the right direction to improve student voice and the school’s election system.

“I think the payout is long term,” Sego said. “It means that a board rep[resentative] candidate who might otherwise have been prevented from running could have a chance, and even one board rep can make a big impact. Over time, just 10 or 20 percent more is going to make a lot of change.”

To raise awareness, Sego has sent emails to the Palo Alto High student body detailing his concerns and encouraging his peers to protect student representation. He hopes to serve as a model for other students who want to make an impact on their community through issues they are passionate about.

“I hope it sets the precedent for students that, if you start a petition and work on it for two weeks, you can get a serious thing changed,” Sego said. “And I think it also means that the administration has to be more careful in the future about how they get involved with student affairs.”