Due to COVID-19 concerns, students haven’t been on the Jackson Prep campus since Spring Break.  As Student Council elections don’t happen until the very end of the school year, these elections have had to take place online Because of their inability to campaign in person, candidates have had to find another way to get their name out to supporters.  

The 2020 election was a departure from the way Prep usually handles student elections, so it was only natural that the students running handled it differently as well.  The school usually hosts mandatory forums where each of the candidates running for major class positions give a speech to the voters.  This year, for the class elections, the school sent a video of each of the candidates speeches to their normal audiences.  

But for all elections, there was no opportunity to talk to a large group of  students  or even to make sure people watched the class officer speeches. Candidates needed a new way to make an impression without being able to do it in person.  Their solution: mass campaign ads, a.k.a. Instagram Stories.  

Because students aren’t able to gather together, candidates realized that they couldn’t reach the whole school; they could only reach their followers on social media.  During this election, endorsements from friends became extremely important.  

Everyone has a slightly different group of followers on social media. Therefore, each person that reposted your campaign ad on their story was a new group of students that could be reached. Social media during the election process was swamped with campaign messages.  Other schools used this method too, so many Prep students saw the same types of campaign ads from schools that were having elections close to ours.  Though candidates did things like send texts asking students personally for their vote, the most drastic change from online elections was the mass social media response.  

Though students will eventually go back to school, it will be interesting to see if Student Council candidates will start relying on social media campaigns.

In this election, Tori Johnston won Student Body President, John Henry Andress won Student Body Vice President, and Victoria Nowell won Student Body Secretary.  

For the 12th grade, Rosy Ruffin won President, Lilly Noble won Vice President, and Aubrey Scott won Secretary.  The committee members are Jack Baker, Kayleigh Canoy, Madeline Conerly, Sayley Crawford, Emma Dye, Sarah Herring, Eliza Mazzaferro, Mills Murphy, Mason Nichols, Alex Roberson, Cass Rutledge, and Graham Speed.

For the 11th grade, Ben Futvoye won President, Worth Hewitt won Vice President, and Julia Stratinger won Secretary.  The committee members are Brinkley Boswell, Maggie Boswell, Walker Box, Gibson Brown, Mayrant Gonwa, Sam Graves, Ewing Milam, Lila Murphy, George Pittman, Walker Poole, Evelyn Thornton, and Elena Zouboukos.

For the 10th grade, Ian Underwood won President, Chase Thompson won Vice President, and Kelsey Clay won Secretary.  The committee members are Akhila Adari, Nejir Baser, Bradley Carter, Alexis Renee Heath, Jillian Hollman, Raylei Mckinney, Anders Morgan, Elam Roberson, WIll Upton, William Walker, Trey Welch, and Edward Wilson