Students at Millennium Brooklyn High School gathered in the John Jay Auditorium on October 30, 2015 to witness the student presidential debate.

There were three junior representatives who began the event by taking turns to answer questions posed to them about what they would do and why they would be the best student president.

After the junior representatives, the senior representatives, Antonio Brewer and Jade Howes Austin, took the floor. However, there was no debate, since Jade chose to withdraw from the running before the debating begun.

Jade Howes Austin was already an active participant in the Millennium community and gave the student body a full explanation as to why she chose not to run.

“I’ve always been big on after school activities but there is such thing as too many […] I just could not take on another thing effectively.” Jade, already being on senior committee, cheerleading and starting to apply for colleges, shared with her peers that she was not ready to take on any more large responsibilities.

Many of Jade’s peers were shocked while she spoke and shared how they made them feel. Julie Terrone, a senior, said she understood why Jade would step aside as a “fellow senior in the same position,” but would have liked to “have a female representative standing up for the voices in [the] school.”