Originally published in print in November 2025. View print issues here.

On Sept. 17, Branham students and staff members received a loudspeaker announcement about the celebration of Constitution Day.

Principal Beth Silbergeld began fourth period by acknowledging holidays such as Constitution Day, Hispanic Heritage Month, Mexican Independence Day and the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Section 111 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2005 (Public Law 108-447) states that all federally funded schools must make an announcement acknowledging Constitution Day.

“I’ve been a principal for 14 years, and this is the first time we have mentioned something about Constitution Day,” Silbergeld said. “[The requirement] had been in place for 12 years and hadn’t been implemented until this year.”

Junior Charlotte Homer, founder and president of the Branham Political Association Club, believes that there is a reason why this requirement was suddenly pushed for.

“The current administration [is] making decisions that sometimes are getting out of hand in the sense that [it] isn’t following the Constitution,” Homer said.

All the schools in the area were notified by the Under Secretary of Education to make an announcement about Constitution Day. The type of announcement was left to each school to determine.

“[The schools] were given very broad directions on how to make the announcement,” Silbergeld said.

In an email sent out to teachers and faculty the day prior to the announcement, Silbergeld alerted staff about the upcoming holiday.

“All educational institutions receiving Federal funding need to follow requirements,” Silbergeld wrote.

Public schools like Branham rely on federal funding. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, $131 billion was allocated for K-12 public schools from the federal government, state and other sources.

“It’s the implication that you have to do as you’re told because you’re being funded,” Homer said.

Other schools, including those in the San Jose Unified School District and Campbell Union High School District, chose slideshows, Kahoots and loudspeaker announcements to celebrate Constitution Day. However, no schools in the area chose not to make the announcement, according to Silbergeld.

“There are certain risks not worth taking for the benefit of the community I serve,” Sibergeld said.

Senior Luke Choi believes that the announcement could remind students of the United States’ foundational values.

“I think that this is going towards a foundation because these [holidays] are to remember what we lost and what we gained,” Choi said.

Although there are no direct risks in not making the announcement, if one school decides not to make it for whatever reason, Choi believes it can have negative impacts over time.

“Disobeying the government feels like breaking the social contract that we, the citizens, have with the government,” Choi said. “Once we start disobeying them for something like this, we will continue to disobey and create a domino effect.”

Silbergeld hopes that educators, who are role models to the students, can take initiative in teaching students about things such as the Constitution.

“We can choose to ignore things, but as school educators, we’re state employees, and my hope is that we’re democratic institutions,” Silbergeld said. “We want to also represent the important values of a democratic nation.”

While the government does have the power to take away funding, fully taking action on this opportunity is not likely. Still, Homer believes that this sets a worrying precedent.

“Our president has shown that he is capable if he wants to disregard the Constitution through his choices,” Homer said. “I feel like that’s something that has no limit, just based on who he is and what he’s done in the past.”

Illustration by Emi Mohanrao