History Main / AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil

In real life, power in United States schools is in the hands of the principal and faculty and the school district; and of course, these are subordinate to the power of state and federal courts. In England and Wales it lies with the Headteacher, the Board of Governors and the Local Education Authority. Other jurisdictions, including Scotland, may have their own arrangements. To create the illusion of students having power over their lives at school, student councils are forged. In truth, these groups are largely figurehead posts, the only real power they have is superficial and the only benefit is a student council slot on your college application under "extra curricular activities" and an extra picture in the yearbook.

Note that in Japan, this is an exaggeration of TruthInTelevision, as the Student Councils actually ''do'' have power over the approval ''and funding'' of student clubs. ''[[SchoolClubsAreSeriousBusiness School Clubs Are Serious Business]]'', as they're meant to prepare students for the high-pressure work environment into which they'll eventually be dumped, and students are ''strongly'' encouraged to join at least one. And just like in their future jobs, students are expected to show utmost loyalty to their club: once you join, [[ResignationsNotAccepted you're there for life]]. Likewise, in private schools in the United Kingdom, prefect councils often perform the same functions that an honor (honour?) council fulfills at a university, and a class's prefects are assigned to keep order in the teacher's absence. Are you starting to see the clout Student Council can hold?

* The Public Safety Commission from ''RosarioToVampire'' are the only ones allowed to use their monster powers on school grounds, which they abuse. They've even got their own dungeon for imprisoning the "unruly". They personally take it upon themselves to execute any human who discovers the school.
** They also can interrupt an instructor's class, round up and arrest students, tie their hands, and march them out, ''with the instructor powerless to stop them''.

* ''Anime/KillLaKill'' [[ExaggeratedTrope exaggerates]] this [[UpToEleven to hell and back]]; Honnouji's student council has created a straight up fascist state and has the power to annex other schools and execute students. As crazy as this sounds, it is ''slightly'' justified by the fact that this setting is an AfterTheEnd scenario, and the owner of the school is an extremely rich family with the daughter at the head of the student council. Said family also has extensive access to Life Fibers, which they use to create [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman superpowered uniforms]], which they use to control the student body and the faculty. The head of the student council herself has a sword that can defeat said uniforms by itself, and a special uniform, called a 'Kamui', which is far more powerful than the rest, matched only by the protagonist's own Kamui and a special sword of her own.

** 'LightNovel/MariaSamaGaMiteru'' revolves around one.

* Played with in ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'': They have an Absurdly Powerful ''City'' Council instead. The Night Vale City Council is described as something akin to an OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness. Everything that occurs in Night Vale is in some way governed by the City Council. It is purported to have existed for nearly 200 years and forces townspeople to vote for them by taking them down into an abandoned mineshaft outside town, doing unkown things to them, and threatening torture and kidnapping of family members. The Council also plays a major role in directing the townspeople's attention away various (extremely obvious) supernatural occurrences, including a mysterious "Glow Cloud" seen hovering around town and raining dead animals, a bloody massacre at the local post office which was accompanied with sounds of "souls being ripped apart by black magic", and the frequent sightings of mysterious figures in black robes lurking around town.

* Played with in ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale}}: They have an Absurdly Powerful ''City'' Council instead. The Night Vale City Council is described as something akin to an OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness. Everything that occurs in Night Vale is in some way governed by the City Council. It is purported to have existed for nearly 200 years and forces townspeople to vote for them by taking them down into an abandoned mineshaft outside town, doing unkown things to them, and threatening torture and kidnapping of family members. The Council also plays a major role in directing the townspeople's attention away various (extremely obvious) supernatural occurrences, including a mysterious "Glow Cloud" seen hovering around town and raining dead animals, a bloody massacre at the local post office which was accompanied with sounds of "souls being ripped apart by black magic", and the frequent sightings of mysterious figures in black robes lurking around town.

* Played with in WelcomeToNightVale: They have an Absurdly Powerful ''City'' Council instead. The Night Vale City Council is described as something akin to an OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness. Everything that occurs in Night Vale is in some way governed by the City Council. It is purported to have existed for nearly 200 years and forces townspeople to vote for them by taking them down into an abandoned mineshaft outside town, doing unkown things to them, and threatening torture and kidnapping of family members. The Council also plays a major role in directing the townspeople's attention away various (extremely obvious) supernatural occurrences, including a mysterious "Glow Cloud" seen hovering around town and raining dead animals, a bloody massacre at the local post office which was accompanied with sounds of "souls being ripped apart by black magic", and the frequent sightings of mysterious figures in black robes lurking around town.

* In ''Manga/KatekyoHitmanReborn'', the student council president Hibari Kyoya has everyone in the school afraid of him; no one does anything even when he harms the other students. He has the director of the local hospital under his fingers and is the most feared deliquent group in their town AND can get rid of dead bodies, no questions asked.

* In ''Manga/{{Beelzebub}}'', St. Ishiyama Academy has the Six Knights, who [[spoiler:use to]] have absolute authority over the student body. At Ishiyama High, there is no "official" student council. Instead, the "council" is the Tohoshinki, the four strongest delinquents of the entire school. Oga later on became the "StudentCouncilPresident" when he defeated all four, making him the strongest delinquent at Ishiyama High.

In terms of rank, about the only [[AuthorityTropes authority trope]] arguably as low as this is the {{Landlord}}. For the other lower steps, see ClubPresident and ClassRepresentative for the enforcers, see YellowSashOfPower. For the next step up, see StudentCouncilPresident.

* In ''GirlsUndPanzer'', the student council not only control the schools' funding, but negotiate on an equal level with the national education authorities and can threaten to expel our heroine, Miho, for not taking up tankery as her elective. In the spin-off manga ''Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu'', it is even revealed they [[spoiler: get to decide where the massive school-ship Ooari Girls' Academy floats on gets to go. They sail southwards for Christmas.]]

* Played with in WelcomeToNightVale: They have an Absurdly Powerful ''City'' Council instead. The Night Vale City Council is described as something akin to an OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness. It is purported to have existed for nearly 200 years and forces townspeople to vote for them by taking them down into an abandoned mineshaft outside town, doing unkown things to them, and threatening torture and kidnapping of family members. The Council also plays a major role in directing the townspeople's attention away various (extremely obvious) supernatural occurrences, including a mysterious "Glow Cloud" seen hovering around town and raining dead animals, a bloody massacre at the local post office which was accompanied with sounds of "souls being ripped apart by black magic", and the frequent sightings of mysterious figures in black robes lurking around town.

->'''Cecil''' (In reference to "angel" sightings): "The Council would like to remind you that you should not know anything about this. They only tell lies and they do not exist."

* The city of Night Vale in WelcomeToNightVale has one of these. The Night Vale City Council is described as something akin to an OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness, and is purported to have existed for nearly 200 years, force townspeople to vote for them under the threat of torture and kidnapping of family members, cover up various (extremely obvious) supernatural occurrences, and a variety of other outrageous things.

* In the [[YanksWithTanks US Air Force]], all airmen who graduate Basic Training have to go through Tech School, vocational training to learn the jobs they will be performing in the Air Force. Airmen in training and living in the dorms can volunteer (or be "volun-told") to become a "Rope" [[note]]So called because of the color-coded aiguilettes they wear on their uniforms - [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience Green, Yellow, and Red, in order of seniority. They all answer to the sergeants who are responsible for maintaining discipline in the squadron, who wear Blue ropes.]][[/note]], airmen who have been trained and given the power to enforce the rules over the other airmen. These guys are emulating the authority hierarchy that exists in the real military, and helping the sergeants manage the somtimes upwards of ''thousands'' of airmen in any given training squadron. They are able to report airmen to the sergeants for violating rules, and are often expected to take attendance and make sure everybody gets to where they are supposed to be. Some Ropes are apathetic as long as the airmen under them don't actively get them in trouble, others are regular [[TheNeidermeyer Neidermeyers]], quite a few actually are competent leaders if given a chance.

** A lot of public universities have versions of this. A portion of student fees go the student goverment, and are under student control. Also typically the student center and school stores are owned by and managed by this(And anyone who has ever bought a text book can tell you this can be lucrative). Budgets in the 10s of million are quite common, as are trips to the state capitol and other places(and are the ocasional reports of malfesence) the amount the student body is aware and or cares of these activities- varies.

* Frosh Week at the University of Waterloo is run by the Education Comittee, or EDCOM. They dress and act like [[DrillSergeantNasty military police]], but [[SubvertedTrope their authority only lasts for the duration of Frosh Week, and they are usually very friendly outside of uniform.]]

In real life, power in United States schools is in the hands of the principal and faculty and the board of education; and of course, these are subordinate to the power of state and federal courts. In England and Wales it lies with the Headteacher, the Board of Governors and the Local Education Authority. Other jurisdictions, including Scotland, may have their own arrangements. To create the illusion of students having power over their lives at school, student councils are forged. In truth, these groups are largely figurehead posts, the only real power they have is superficial and the only benefit is a student council slot on your college application under "extra curricular activities" and an extra picture in the yearbook.

* In ''FinalFantasyVIII'', the Disciplinary Committee is a student-run committee in Balamb Garden that exists to enforce the Garden's rules among the students. Though perhaps it wasn't a good idea to allow Seifer and his "posse" to run it, as they use their power to bully and harass other students without fear of getting into trouble for it. It is also implied that they have some sort of "hit list" that even the school's instructors aren't safe from.

* ''Anime/KillLaKill'' exaggerates this [[UpToEleven to hell and back]]; Honnouji's student council has created a straight up fascist state and has the power to annex other schools and execute students. As crazy as this sounds, it is justified by the fact that this setting is an AfterTheEnd scenario, and the owner of the school is an extremely rich family with the daughter at the head of the student council. Said family also has extensive access to Life Fibers, which they use to create [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman superpowered uniforms]], which they use to control the student body and the faculty. The head of the student council herself has a sword that can defeat said uniforms by itself, and a special uniform, called a 'Kamui', which is far more powerful than the rest, matched only by the protagonist's own Kamui and a special sword of her own.

* The teachers in the 1992 BoardingSchool movie ''SchoolTies,'' a crib sheet is found on the floor during an exam and the teachers ''tell the students'' to form their own [[KangarooCourt impromptu hearing]] to decide which one of them was cheating. The [[InformedJudaism token Jewish]] protagonist [[TheScapegoat is seized]] upon by a JokerJury of [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Anti-Semitic]] schoolboys. The {{Anvilicious}} tone of the scene is HilariousInHindsight once you consider [[DickWolf who wrote the movie.]]

* The Morals Commitee in ''Manga/NejimakiKagyu'' a KnightTemplar group who not only police the school but have the power to get ''teachers'' fired