For some high school students winning King and Queen for a school dance is a dream for them before they graduate. For others, winning is simply just something extra.

“The right person wins,” senior Cole Nyffeler said. “Usually it’s the people who are involved”

Nyffeler was nominated for senior royalty this school year. To him, royalty means “You embody what the school is looking for in a student”.

Over the years voting numbers have gone down. Not even 1/3 of any class voted this year for who they want to represent them. The seniors came in with the largest number of votes, ringing in a grand number of 40.

“The time in which we vote definitely played a role in the decline in voting,” STUCO member Koree Case said. “Because voting is now during lunch, people don’t want to take the time to go through the voting process”.

Due to the declined number of students voting, being nominated for class royalty doesn’t have as much meaning to the students who are nominated, as it used to.

“I was just kinda like cool… this is cool,” Nyffeler said. “I didn’t feel like I needed to win. I would’ve liked winning, but then I found out only 30 people voted.”

Over the years, something went wrong. All of a sudden, students stopped voting and caring for who wins royalty.

“I think it’s been “cheated” if you will,” senior Abby Morrow said. “like for homecoming when all the band kids came together and said they were gonna vote for one person.”

Due to the huge decline in voting, students can come together and agree to vote on one person, and then that particular student they vote on will get nominated.

“Also I feel like senior year especially it’s kind of annoying when the same people get elected that have won in the past years,” Morrow said.

It’s so much easier to re-recognize someone than to discover some one new. But once people know the good you’ve done for others, they’ll never forget about it.

Class royalty is more than the title and the tiara. It’s the recognition. It’s the feeling of being noticed by someone other than your parents.

“Class royalty to me is an opportunity,” STUCO member Koree Case said. “An opportunity for our grade to come together and shine some light on stellar individuals.”