A very closely contested and highly polarizing election season came to an end a few weeks ago when Donald Trump won over 50% of the popular vote and well-over the 270 electoral college votes required to win the presidency. Given the fact that the whole Breck community was paying careful attention to this election, The Bugle wanted to check-in with members of the Upper School to hear their thoughts about how Breck handled this historic event that polarized most of the rest of our nation.
Breck students felt a wide range of emotions in response to the election results. Many students were united in their surprise about the outcome for various reasons. Nico Parkhill ‘25 was surprised by how split the vote was and worried about what that could mean for the future. A similar sentiment was shared by Furii Tufaa ‘25 and Matthew Manacek ‘25 who were both surprised by the magnitude of Trump’s victory, especially considering the tight polling and significant amount of pre-election coverage that anticipated a long wait for final results. Hayden Dahlof ‘25 also noted the shocking extent of the victory, specifically in terms of the flipped Senate which gave Republicans control of all three branches of government. Many other students expressed their emotional responses to the result, which spanned the full range from sorrow to joy. Avital Krebs ‘26 described her disappointment with the results and her fear of “the extremism that Trump represents.” Avital noted that though no candidate is perfect, she felt her beliefs were truly represented by Harris and feels the opposite with Trump. Nico expressed a similar worry about Trump’s presidency, specifically for LGBTQ+ communities, women, and other minority groups. However, there was also a feeling of happiness and unity shared by Will Oltmann ‘26. He expressed that Trump’s victory gave him a sense of clarity because he felt Trump represents “what the nation was asking for” after winning all of the swing states. Will illustrated his view that the Trump presidency is an opportunity for the country to unite by noting, “if Trump does a good job, it will pull Democrats [to the right], if he does a bad job it can push a lot of Republicans [to the left]…in some way, that will be unifying.”
Overall, Breck students of all political affiliations felt that the Breck community handled the election positively. Avital noted that though there was obviously a lot of disappointment on the day after Trump’s victory, there was also happiness, and the Breck community did a good job sticking together and moving forward even though there are diverse beliefs. Will, who articulated that “it doesn’t take a genius to see that Breck is a left-leaning school,” also found that people have been good about being mindful of their words and actions regardless of affiliation. Specifically, he has not seen gloating from Republican students and noted that “strong Harris supporters lost with grace.” Misha Sostek ‘25 has also observed this mutual respect, even remarking that “Breck is handling the results better than expected.” A faculty member who has witnessed the reactions to many presidential races unfold in Breck’s hallways was consulted for additional perspective. Upper School History teacher, Mr. Grossman commented, “I believe we did, in many ways, as well as we could’ve expected.” He did not ignore the fact that there was a lot of emotion following the election but emphasized the amount of “respect shown by both Harris and Trump supporters.”
The fact that people from all political affiliations believe we are handling the election well at Breck puts us in stark contrast with the current political polarization in the nation. While the US political landscape is increasingly divided, Breck has proved to be unique, specifically in our ability to foster an environment of respectful dialogue and partnership. Mr. Grossman attributed this success to “frontloading on community norms, expectations, and potential outcomes, so that when Trump won, it was not a huge surprise to the community.” Unlike national political polarization, which has increased since Trump’s first presidency, Mr. Grossman observed that “we didn’t seem to have any major conflicts at Breck like those that we saw in 2016.” Breck as a community is a positive counterexample, handling divisive elections and our political differences far more effectively than the American public.
Breck students also shared similar observations about what particularly went well in terms of handling this election gracefully, and also articulated a wide variety of suggestions for the community going forward. Mr. Grossman and Avital both expressed the importance of “open dialogue with students and faculty,” and “creating spaces for political dialogue.” Instead of holding events where many people have the same views, the two urged the community to broaden its outreach to everyone; Mr. Grossman specifically said “it’s important to have people that are speaking to all the different perspectives that are out there.” Furii urged the student body to “continue to address anything big that affects the nation, and to never be hesitant to open healthy discourse.” Will, who stated that “too many assumptions can be made about a person solely because of the candidate they support,” invited the Breck community not to “judge character based on affiliation in the months ahead…At Breck, it is most important to come together.”
In the coming weeks, the rest of the 2024-25 school year, and for many years to come, it will be all the more important that we provide spaces for reflection and discussion about national politics between Breck’s diverse student body and its faculty members. Looking ahead, we must strive to engage collaboratively in the same healthy discourse that helped create such a uniquely-positive environment at Breck these past couple weeks. The Breck community undoubtedly felt a wide range of emotions about the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, but a race that divided much of the nation could not divide us.
