Juvenile Efforts to Silence Juveniles: SMOB Lawsuit Filed
Ruby Gifford ‘23 Features Editor
On December 16, 2020, two Howard County parents filed a lawsuit against the HCPSS Board of Education, requesting the nullification of the Student Board Member’s vote. The Student Member of the Board — or SMOB — is one of eight members of the Howard County Board of Education.
The lawsuit claims that the current SMOB and Howard High School senior, Zach Koung, is responsible for gridlocking the Board on any decision regarding the continuation of online school or the return of in-person school. In the lawsuit, defendant Traci Spiegel states her reasoning for filing the lawsuit: “The Howard County Board of Education is gridlocked. When I started watching the meetings and saw every key vote ending in 4-4 ties with no progress, I was in complete shock. When I found out one of the members was a senior in high school, casting stalemate votes as a minor, grinding our school system to a halt, I knew I had to do something.” It is explicitly stated that the motivation for filing the lawsuit is simply because the defendants disagree with a single issue: Returning to school. Former Board member Cindy Vaillancourt, gives her opinion on the lawsuit: “There could be lots of valid reasons to be concerned about whether or not the student member should have an equal vote on any particular issue. The way he votes doesn’t seem to me to be a valid complaint. If your only problem is how he votes, well, I think you’re missing the point.” In their desperation to fulfill their own agendas, the defendants resorted to targeting what they thought was the weakest link: The student board member. The mere existence of this lawsuit shows the blatant disregard with which student voices are treated. Soon after the lawsuit was released it became clear that it was only a symptom of a greater disease in Howard County.
Many parents who vehemently agreed with the lawsuit chose to “harass, demean, and aggressively bully” the Student Member of the Board online. The attacks against Koung became so extreme that Superintendent Dr. Martirano had to release a statement calling for a stop to the harassment. Watching these events unfold as a student in 2021, the increasingly familiar question is brought up again: Why should students assume that adults are more qualified to make the decisions? It is undeniable that the torch of advocacy has already been passed to our generation. The current high schoolers of Howard County grew up hearing stories of pioneers like Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg. After watching the Capital being stormed by domestic terrorists, it can no longer be said that the grown-ups know best. “I think that we have certainly demonstrated that we have had plenty of adults who haven’t been able to be good decision makers,” says Vaillancourt.
Now more than ever, it is essential that students have a voice in deciding their own education and the tone with which they are taught. A week after the lawsuit was filed, a statement was released by a group of current and former SMOBs across Maryland, supporting Zach Koung. In the statement, they advocate for all HCPSS students’ voices, remarking, “A lawsuit aiming to completely strip voting rights from the SMOB due to a vote on a single issue sends an incredibly disheartening message to students of Howard County: ‘Your opinion matters, as long as the grown-ups agree with it.’” It is indeed disheartening to be a teenager in times like these.
There is more to be criticized in this lawsuit — consider the fact that the defendants are treating matters of safety as if the primary consideration would be public opinion and convenience — and it would be shocking if this lawsuit goes through. Yet, it does bring up a very important conversation about the role that students should be allowed to play in deciding their own education: A conversation that should involve students.