Ken Franks: Our New Student Council President
posted October 5, 2007

It is an incontrovertible fact that, at one point in time, Ken Franks delivered a speech. He stood before an audience of his classmates--those most ruthless of critics called high schoolers--and proceeded to tell them why they should elect him president of the Red Cloud High School Student Council, an act that takes extroversion and greater than average self-confidence. And what's more, Franks' speech succeeded.

It surprised me, therefore, to find in Franks a shy and reticent interview subject. It's not that he's a tight-lipped politician; he's simply reserved, almost taciturn. Hunched forward, he spoke what few words he said into his hands, which he folded self-consciously over his knees—an introverted pose and laconic manner I didn't expect from a student body president, an archetype that one is predisposed to think will be animated and talkative, eager to self-promote and politically savvy insofar as a teenager can be politically savvy.

But Franks' position is not incidental, nor is it the result fortuitous circumstances. Franks has in fact delivered two successful campaign speeches, winning the school presidency both his junior and his senior year. Incumbency, it should be noted, is no mean feat in high school elections, where seniority dictates electability and graduation severely limits the number of terms one can serve.

On the day of our interview, Franks, who is of a medium, athletic build, wore a modest, if slightly baggy, black t-shirt, equivalently baggy black jeans and, over dark, crew-cut hair, a black baseball cap angled just so, up and to the side. I asked him to tell me about his life. His parents were both career army, now onto second careers. He was born in Germany. He has two siblings at Red Cloud, one in first grade and one a year below him, in eleventh grade (Jacob Franks, secretary of student council). Anything else? He looked up from his hands as if something had occurred to him, shrugged, and went back to looking at his hands.

And after he graduates, this May? College. He named three he was interested in. Any interest in following his parents into the military? No, none whatsoever. What subject might he study in college? He didn't know. Or—he paused—environmental science. Maybe.

Last year, in his first term as president, as he tells it, Franks "brought ideas," but failed to accomplish a number of them. This year, with student council experience under his belt (he was elected president last year without having ever served in student government), he hopes to realize the ideas that have failed to become reality thus far.

And there’s certainly no shortage of ideas. According to Student Activities Coordinator Emily Fischer, who acts as faculty-student council liaison, Franks and his student council are bursting with them. She added that, despite his initially laissez-faire approach to student council, "he's learning to be a leader...he has good rapport with the students" and with his fellow student council members. But she is careful to point out that whether these ideas bear fruit remains to be seen and depends largely on Franks' initiative.

After a more or less successful Homecoming week, the next idea that could become reality is the Red Cloud Halloween Carnival. Also on the agenda, according to Franks and his vice president, fellow senior David Giago, are more dances than in previous years. Beyond that, however, Franks was reticent on the subject of his plans for the year, and seemed content to stare at his hands, folded over his knees.