Senior Joe Elliott is no longer serving as Leon’s student body president, due to failure to comply with Student Government Association  Constitution regulations.

Brittany Williams, also a senior, will now serve as student body president while continuing to fulfill her duties as vice president.
 “We have some constitutional constraints placed on our membership,” SGA sponsor Josh Stewart said.

According to Stewart, Elliott violated two rules and was consequently removed from the position.

Elliott did not want to disclose one of the violations, but did acknowledge having received a 1 in citizenship in Cesar Kothe’s first period trigonometry class. This put him in violation of one of the rules applied to the student body president.

“I feel like I failed on a personal level,” Elliott said.

As vice president of the student body, Williams was obligated to take on the title of student body president when Elliott no longer held the position.

“The circumstances are unfortunate,” Williams said.

Williams has taken on the responsibilities of the position, which include reading the announcements every morning, running meetings in Student Government, and representing the school at various functions. She won’t, however, be running pep rallies, as the president generally would.

“I think it would be difficult,” Williams said. She felt that she wasn’t the right person for the job, and wants the pep rally commentator to make the pep rallies the best they can be, so as to benefit the student body.

“Pep rallies are for the students,” Williams said.

“I’m disappointed that it happened,” said Elliott. “But I have other things to focus on.

Elliott describes himself as ‘spread a little thin,’ as he is involved in SGA, Interact, Brain Bowl, ITS, Mane Event, Capital Singers, Madrigals, and four AP classes.

Although he has been removed from his presidential position, Elliott is allowed to remain a member of Student Government.

“He works very hard for SGA,” Stewart said.

Elliott says that being the student body president was a lot of work, and that he put all of his time and energy into it.

“I’m spread a little thin,” Elliott said.

He says that he put all of his works and energy into it, but he’s a little less busy now.

Elliott experienced a similar situation as sophomore class president in the 2007-2008 school year. Removed from that position for as the result of a cheating scandal, Elliott wasn’t allowed the opportunity to run for office for one year after the incident.

At the end of his junior year, Elliott was given permission to run for the 2009-2010 student body president.

Stewart says that it’s a small price to pay for an extremely valuable life lesson to all.

“Live and learn and move on,” Stewart said. “[High school] is a good life lesson, and it is a very cheap lesson. Pay now and play later.”