Many students would like change to happen here at PHS, but few act on making that change as well as Potosi HIgh School senior Dale Riddle. Riddle has been fighting to make changes to the school, including a school-wide survey and a Student School Supreme Court.

The project started earlier this year, when a group of Riddle’s friends came to him about an issue they had regarding what he perceived as a negative school culture. Riddle was so upset by this that he attempted to say something through a group he had created, called the Sons of Liberty. The purpose of the Sons of Liberty was to speak up about issues pertaining to the school, and the community as a whole. However, the plan ultimately fell through when he was told to stop by the school administration. Potosi High School principal Mr. Gibson promised to help him start the kind of change he was seeking, but in a different way.

Together with Mr. Gibson, Riddle created a survey that has gained support from teachers and faculty around the school, who believe that this survey can bring interest and passion back to the school. The survey is meant for both the student body and the faculty members, so there’ll be input from both sides of the system. 

Last Wednesday, Riddle said, “My main goal is to make students feel important to their school environment as if they were adults voting in the real world for an actual government in a way because we are the most important thing (priority) right now, we are the future of our country. We are the next wave teachers, politicians, doctors, workers, everything our country needs. We are our future.” He added, “I also believe less important (smaller, more lenient) rules should be able to change depending on the classroom and their teacher.” Examples of said rules would be food and drinks in class.

The survey is in development, and will be revealed hopefully soon. New ideas for the school improvements could be such as: an idea for outdoor seating, more lunch options, or a fix to our “Frauditorium,” a term Potosi High School teacher Mrs. Lewis coined for our gym, as she would like an established, separate auditorium. 

A larger idea that Riddle suggested was a Student Supreme Court, that would ideally be chosen by different faculty members, not by students, to reduce the popular vote, and make sure qualified people are put in representative positions for the school. Luckily, there are several schools in Missouri that already have similar ideas, such as student representatives in board meetings, such as Fayette R-III and Ritenour School District in St. Louis.  

One final idea Riddle had after the survey occurs is to take this idea across several schools such as Central, Kingston, Farmington, and West County.