The LOHS student Senate voted to approve an amendment to the LOHS student constitution that would degender the Mayfete court. The amendment officially removes the gender-based requirements and labels for the Mayfete court, renaming the court members as “Royalty” instead of princesses, princes, kings and queens.

Two years ago, the school made similar changes to the Homecoming and Winter Formal courts, but the Mayfete court was intentionally left unchanged. More recently, however, students and senators have argued that it is time to bring Mayfete into alignment with the other courts.

“The bill’s goal is to enforce the equal opportunity clauses codified in district and state legislation,” says Senator Selena Zhang, who proposed the most recent “Royalty” amendment.

Before voting on the Mayfete Royalty amendment, the Senate and ASB commissioned a survey of the student body in order to seek input on the proposed changes to the constitution. According to ASB officials, there were 340 responses to the survey, with a majority of the responses favoring changing the Mayfete court to a “Royalty” system.

During the Senate meeting, ASB President Alicia Lopez, who is aso the de facto chair of the Senate, opened the Senate floor for any debate or comments. There was none. Afterwards, each senator was given a slip of slip of paper, with the options to either vote in favor, against, or to abstain. The ballots were collected by Chris Hill, the Leadership advisor, who then proceeded to count the ballots in private. A few minutes later, Hill returned to announce that the Senate had approved the amendment with more than a 2/3 majority, the constitutionally required threshold.

Given the passage of the amendment, this year’s Mayfete court will follow the Royalty system, allowing for the election of any student, regardless of gender.