The ongoing debate of the role gender plays in voted positions has finally come to a conclusion for the 2022-23 school year, AHS has made the change from having a head boy and head girl to any gender pair co-student leaders to make the student government more equitable.

The process of changing our Head boy and Head girl to co-student leaders started two years ago. Senior Ava Cherry previously ran for a head position in the 2020-21 school year and participated in the decision-making process of changing the titles. Tameira Wilson, a social studies teacher at Aspen High School and student senate advisor, along with the student senate facilitated the change. They started to pose the question of how we as a school become more inclusive as a whole and make sure any person can be a leader. As a result, seniors Alex Schlosser and Peter de Wetter were elected as the first two male Co-Heads in AHS history.

“We choose the two most adequate individuals to be co-heads no matter what, their genders play no role in that decision,” Cherry said.

de Wetter does not believe that two of the same gender pair will have a drastic effect on the student body. This is new territory and both Schlosser and de Wetter are learning and receiving feedback as to how they can best keep our student body together as a community.

“Honestly, I think [gender bias] is a good thing for me to think about because it is new and different from what we’ve had in the past,” de Wetter said. “I don’t think that idea has fully been explored by [our] bias towards boys.”

Although two male figures were elected, this will not disturb the balance of perspectives. The Aspen High School student senate was created to ensure that students’ voice is incorporated into all functions. Each grade level has multiple representatives bringing their ideas to the table. Senior class treasurer, Bliss Hemstreet has made sure everyone will be heard.

“I think there’s a handful of voices and we have a lot of different ways for students to give feedback, like the google forms that we send out, or at lunch when we try to go around and hear everyone’s ideas,” Hemstreet said.