Senior first black to be elected student body president at Reno High School
Reno High School senior Joe Harris plans to attend Arizona State University in the fall.
When 17-year-old Joe Harris was elected student body president, he anticipated more responsibility, but not to make history.
The Reno High School senior is the first black student body president at the 57-year-old school on Booth Street.
“It’s just cool that students like me enough to elect me as their student body president, regardless of race,” Harris said.
Harris was elected to the position at the end of his junior year. At the time, he was one of the 49 black students who attended the school, according to the Washoe County School District accountability report. The total students enrolled at the school in 2006-2007 was 1,896.
“I wasn’t trying to be the first,” Harris said.
“I just thought I’d be good for the job.”
Principal Bob Sullivan agreed Harris was fit for the position.
“He’s a leader,” Sullivan said. “And he took the position of a leader to serve his classmates.”
Though Harris plans to attend Arizona State University in the fall, his mother, Toni Harris, said she thinks he will not forget about this accomplishment.
“I think Joe will always look back on this as the beginning of his political career,” said Toni Harris, 55, of Reno.
This article originally appeared in Reno Gazette-Journal.
