Michael Kang, third from right, at a meeting of the Kang Student Movement.
A recent meeting of the Kang Student Movement’s Idea Development Team centered around a whiteboard.
Chock-full of bullet points scrawled in black EXPO marker, the board featured an underlined heading at the top: “How to bring Biden.”
The movement, started by namesake sophomore Michael Kang along with four of his friends Feb 22., is already gaining attention around the school, in part due to its bold policy proposals (yes, including inviting U.S. President Joe Biden to speak at East), as it prepares to support candidates in next year’s Student Council elections.
“We were trying to tackle some ambitious plans and make some changes at East,” said Kang, who plans to run for junior rep next year. “We were thinking that this can only be possible if we group together.”
KSM meets multiple times per week, with meetings divided into the Idea Development Team (which conducts Socratic seminars to workshop the movement’s policy proposals) and the Analytics Team (which constantly evaluates KSM, helps Kang make certain decisions, and takes stock of student support for the movement).
“Our biggest goal is to put more power in the students’ hands,” said sophomore Kevin Bangilan, Kang’s “right hand man” and the Director of the Analytics Team.
The movement hopes to secure more influence and funding (by the PTSA) for Student Council, reform PAC, increase the availability of information at East, and of course, invite “distinguished individuals” to speak at East.
“We’re both dreamers,” Bangilan said of himself and Kang, who he has known since freshman year and describes as an “eccentric, upright” person. “It’ll come off as we want to get all these big, influential people [to come to the school to speak], but our starting point, what we’re aiming for right now, we’re trying to aim low.”
Still, some are quick to point to goals like “Bring Biden” as evidence of the movement’s misunderstanding of the current role of Student Council. Student Council has evolved to serve East through social engagement and community events, and certain KSM reforms, like overhauling PAC, would fall outside the Council’s jurisdiction.
“I don’t want to be insulting but it’s humorous,” social studies teacher Delaney Titus said. “It’s nice to see someone caring, whether or not that care is well suited for the problem. It’s nice to see someone who wants to be involved. However, the nature of that involvement has to be healthy, sanctioned with a dose of reality. And I don’t know if this has that dose of reality.”
Despite her skepticism, Titus still acknowledges the dedication shown by Kang in the advancement of his ideas.
“He seems very motivated and very intentional about his plans, what he hopes to accomplish,” Titus said. “I don’t know what he hopes to accomplish per se, but I know that he seems laser focused on what he wants to do.”
Freshman Franklin Johnson, who is the Director of the Athletics Department for KSM, rejects the idea that what Kang is attempting is implausible.
“It’s not that crazy actually,” Johnson said. “It’s a fundamental belief that students should have a bit more power, even just a little more say, in what goes on inside our school.”
As the director of the athletic department of KSM, Johnson has hopes of advocating for student athletes, re-allocating funds to serve the student body more effectively.
“We’re trying to legitimize student’s needs,” Johnson said. “I think that I’ll probably be getting endorsements for Kang, but I’ll also be telling Kang ‘the lacrosse team wants new jerseys.’ You need some power to tell the people who control the finances of the school we don’t need a bunch of free Krispy Kreme donuts, maybe get some guys better equipment for sports or clean up the facilities because there’s piss puddles everywhere.”
The roots of Kang’s advocacy go back to sixth grade at Phillips Middle School, when he says his personality changed. He started reaching out to others more with handshakes, greetings and “general phrases that can make people happy.”
“I started becoming more extroverted,” he said. “I realized that if I participate more, if I am more socially active, if I advocate for the causes of others, if I speak out for others, and for myself, and for certain changes, whether it be from student-teacher relations, student-admin relations, or student-societal relations, I realized that my voice matters. My voice has an impact.”
Kang’s outgoing nature and friendly disposition has helped to give the movement momentum.
“He’s a very extroverted man,” Johnson said. “He’s outgoing. He’s very enthusiastic, and you can tell he cares about all the stuff he wants to do. If he sees you in the hall, he says your name, goes up to you and daps you up.”
KSM primarily disseminates information from its instagram: @kang_student_movement, which posts pictures of KSM members at meetings, usually with a caption of “Kang !”, and one recent post simply reads “I heart Kang!”
Messaging like that, centered around Kang himself, has led to some questions about the movement and its purposes.
“Although it does kind of seem from the outside perspective that we’re a cult, we’re really not,” Bangilan said. “I mean, it would be cool, don’t get me wrong, for us to have this big cult in our school. But Michael Kang doesn’t run stuff like that. We’re kind of just like a fledgeling political party.”
Kang acknowledged other concerns.
“There has been some public Inquiry into the nature of our movement,” he said. “‘Are we trying to overthrow the student government?’ ‘Is this a coup d’etat?’ ‘Are you guys trying to replace the student government?’ To that I would reply ‘Absolutely not.’ Because our representatives, our presidential candidates are going to be elected in a democratic process.”
Kang says the movement he leads is not actually a political party, because it does not have any official candidates yet, but that it will become one when it formally backs candidates like himself in the student government elections at the beginning of next school year.
Titus retains doubts about the movement’s success given the current school climate.
“The idea that one student or a small group of students is going to collectively change the mindsets of an entire school population is unlikely,” she said. “I see it as very lofty and unlikely to really do what they say they’re going to do.”
According to Kang, however, KSM is working to crystallize its goals in the form of a document containing all of the movement’s ideas, which he hopes to present to the principal next year.
“We are trying to make it as flawless as possible so that the principal or anyone who we present this to cannot deny it,” Kang said. “We are something that East hasn’t seen before. Something that tries to mobilize students for a common cause looking to change student government.”
Photo courtesy of Kang Student Movement/The ECHO
