Is it okay to put diversity over democracy

[kenny]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/10/20/s-f-middle-school-delays-election-results-because-winners-not-diverse-enough/?tid=sm_fb

I think PS is a fairly diversity-supporting community.
But would you ever support setting aside election results if only, say, white, blond, blue-eyed, straight, old-monied, tall and attractive males won?

Snip from above link:
"When Everett held its election three days later, its principal promptly refused to release the results, saying she was concerned that the winners were not diverse enough.

While she would ultimately relent and release the results, her decision spurred anger among parents and kids who felt that the principal was putting diversity ahead of democracy. Critics compared her to a dictator who scraps elections when results don’t go her way. It was the middle school equivalent of hanging chads and a near political crisis, only without a Supreme Court to hear the case."

 

[kenny]

Here's another quote from the article that gives one pause.

"Some parents supported her, pointing out that (principle) Van Haren was struggling with the same societal problems that produce a Congress that is 80 percent white and 80 percent male in a country that is more than 50 percent female and 38 percent non-white (including Hispanics)."

 

[amc80]

I think that's about as ridiculous as it gets.

 

[telephone89]

While I applaud the effort to talk about what is happening and why, I think she went about it and a very odd way.

I think it's a great conversation to have though.

 

[iLander]

I'm stunned and amazed by the idiot principal stories I've been hearing lately.

Apparently, there's a principal in the Bronx that didn't want her teachers to sit, so she took all their desks away and had them put out at the curb for trash. In FRONT of the students. The teachers frantically threw their files in boxes. But they all still have their chairs. Just dumb.

This is also a dumb principal.

 

[VRBeauty]

Perhaps she saw it as a "teachable moment"?

How can or do you bring up the topic of diversity in a grade school election? I'm thinking it's a very slippery slope. This principal has started that conversation, though perhaps not in the way she intended. Those kids will be talking about diversity in their next election, and the next... probably far sooner than they would have if their principal hadn't taken this step. Not that I think she should have, by the way, but I'm guessing her actions will bring about positive results in spite of the clumsiness of her methods.