Juniors Cobalt McAvinue and Ruben Garcia created Venice High’s Student Union earlier this year to inform students about their rights in regards to the school’s staff and administration. They fight against what they think are “bogus” policies like the dress code, tardy sweeps, and the bathrooms never being open during and after school.

More recently, the union has been very vocal about the Smarter Balance test. The test is a common core exam that is optional, but if more students take it, then the school will get more funding and higher scores from more students testing leads to having a better reputation for Venice. Last year, many students opted out of the test.

“The new implementation of Common Core standards in schools has proven itself to be nothing but an obstruction on the road to success for students,” said Garcia.

In order to encourage students to take the test, Principal Oryla Wiedoft threatened to prevent next year’s students from obtaining Jackets of Excellence and off-campus passes if they opted out of the test.

McAvinue and Garcia said they think this was wrong, because it infringes on students’ rights to opt out of the test. They wrote newsletters to get the word out about the right to not take the test, and claim that the principal was doing was illegal, and how common core hinders learning.

As of now, eight students are in the union, which meets every Wednesday at lunch in room 232

“In the future, we hope to make the union grow… the main goal is to act in the way a teachers’ union works,” said McAvinue.