Yearbook’s senior polls stir controversy among students

In response to what they saw as excessive campaigning for unimportant awards, a group of Samo students and alumni launched a multi-dimensional protest on Facebook against Samo’s yearbook and the senior polls.Every year, the senior class votes on the senior superlatives that are published in the yearbook, “The Nautilus.” This year, however, some students felt like there was too much self-promoting.According to Samo senior Nick Deagon, the protest began when he received one too many “Vote for me!” requests. In response to the excessive self-promotion, he posted a sarcastic Facebook status suggesting that everyone vote for him in all categories.Senior Elijah Kravets then created a Facebook group advocating Deagon’s suggestion, which sparked interest from Samo students and alumni.“The idea of a senior poll is a way of showing who’s popular, because it doesn’t matter who is actually best at one thing, it’s just who campaigns most, and who knows the most people,” Samo alum and college freshman Emmett Storms who is heavily involved in the Facebook campaign, said. “[Deagon], who is not a classically popular individual is becoming a symbol for everyone else, making him a more relatable candidate.”According to yearbook adviser Amy Chapman, what was intended to be a joke, escalated into something more serious when a yearbook staffer responded to the group on Facebook claiming that those votes for Deagon were pointless because they would not result in any wins. The staffer’s comment was misinterpreted. She was referring to yearbook’s long standing policy that although people may technically win more than one category, they can only be published as the winner of one category in “The Nautilus.” This policy has been in place in order to keep the senior superlatives fair and as inclusive as possible. The reply to the staffer’s message was profanity-laden and soon after it was sent, violent images of guns and other malicious acts began popping up on the group’s page.“If it had stopped at the ‘Vote Nick Deagon for Everything,’ [it] would’ve been fine,” Chapman said. “What I’m not okay with is the negative language, the hatred, the pictures of guns and the embedded threats that ‘we are trying to send a message.’ I think it’s unwarranted and I think it’s unfair.”Yearbook Editor-in-Chief and senior Cami Speyer believes that although the staffer’s message could have acted as a catalyst for the protest, the people involved actually just wanted to cause conflict.“At that point [the alumni] were looking for an excuse to make this bigger than it was and [the message from yearbook] was the perfect thing to start it,” senior Colin Kornfield, one of the protestors, said.Speyer says other students agree.“I’ve talked to my friends that are involved in the protest and they understand [now] that what they’re doing is crazy,” Speyer said. “They’ve agreed to take the event off Facebook.”Kravets removed the event from Facebook on Oct. 8.Though Kravets cancelled the event, prior to this, the feud escalated.According to Kravets, in an effort to promote the campaign on school grounds, students involved wore t-shirts with Nick Deagon campaign messages on them starting on Monday, Oct. 1. Members of the Nick Deagon group have alleged that yearbook staff members harassed them for wearing the shirts. This has caused a new wave of controversy among members of the group. However, Chapman says this did not happen.“Everyone on my staff vehemently denies it, and considering that so much of what [group members have] said has been an outright lie, I don’t believe them,” Chapman said.According to Alexander Uhler, another 2012 Samo graduate involved with the movement, yearbook has mishandled the sarcastic group.“Anyone who has been paying attention to the movement’s interaction with yearbook can tell that certain members of yearbook clearly have an ulterior agenda which disregards the ideas of freedom of speech and fair polling practices,” Uhler said. “I’m not saying that all of yearbook is inherently obstructive of these positive values; there are even members of yearbook who are supporters of the movement.”However, yearbook’s Creative Director Katie Leavitt says that yearbook is doing no such thing.“We are going to count the votes for Nick Deagon just like we would count the votes for any other student,” Leavitt said.“However, Nick can’t win all the categories due to our policy.”According to Chapman, the senior polls are supposed to be exclusively for the senior class and should have nothing to do with alumni.“It makes me really sad for their lives,” Chapman said. “I think that high school is a beautiful time in your life. It’s wonderful for some people and stressful for others but when it’s done, it’s done and it’s time to move on. I think if you’re spending your first few weeks of college so focused on your high school days, it’s a little bit sad for how your college days are shaping up to be.”Daniel BottittaStaff Writerdbottitta@thesamohi.com