Prince George's Student Board of Ed Member Finishes Term

By Local Editor Kirsten Petersen

After a year filled with success, but also some challenges, Bowie resident Shabnam Ahmed ended her term last week as the student member of the board with the Prince George’s County Board of Education.

When she was elected by her peers, Ahmed aspired to reinstate middle school athletics, introduce outside vendors to school cafeterias, enforce harsher consequences for bullying and increase internship opportunities, the Gazette reported last May.

Ahmed accomplished many of these goals, such as helping launch the Prince George’s County student government website, distributing scholarship information, introducing a new method of monitoring bullying in schools and establishing the superintendent’s student advisory council, the newspaper reported.

She also advocated for the elimination of the $50 student athletic fee, which was recently repealed, the Gazette reported.

Even before her term began, Ahmed expressed discontent with the limits on her role. When the Board of Education considered restricting the student member’s access to executive meetings, Ahmed told the Gazette that she felt like the voices of “the majority of the county” would not be heard.

Additionally, she was the only member of the Board of Education to vote against re-electing District 5 member Verjeana Jacobs to a sixth term as chairwoman, the newspaper reported.

Ahmed’s sister, Raaheela, had challenged Jacobs for the District 5 seat and placed first in the primary election, Patch reported. Raaheela Ahmed, who was 19-years-old when she ran for the Board of Education, lost the general election last November, the Gazette reported.

Shabnam Ahmed graduated from Bowie High School and will be attending the University of Maryland in the fall. She received the 2013 Superintendent Scholarship for Excellence in Education for Prince George’s County Public Schools and the Prince George’s County Council Leadership Scholarship, the Gazette reported.

Her successor, Rukayat Muse-Ariyoh, is a rising senior at Charles H. Flowers High School. She will begin her term August 14.