Inglewood Junior High gets in on election fever
November 11, 2008
By Ari Cetron
Kris Berg, a ninth-grader, casts his vote. Photo by Ari Cetron.
The presidential election campaign at Inglewood Junior High School differed radically from that in the rest of the nation in one respect.
“We weren’t allowed to have any negative campaigning,” said Puja Das, a seventh-grader.
Students at Inglewood spent the past few weeks studying the issues. A group of teachers – Adam Gervis, Gerry Lenocker and Richard Snyder – put together brief statements about the presidential and gubernatorial races and ballot initiative 985. These were distributed throughout the school to help the teachers ask the kinds of questions that would provoke a debate, Snyder said.
The students, Gervis said, do not just mirror the voting patterns of their parents.
“The more you talk to them, the more they form their own opinions,” he said.
On Election Day, students from Eastlake High School came to act as monitors, and groups led students from class to the library, where banks of computers were set up for voting. Another group monitored the voting, to ensure that students would not vote twice.
The school used polling technology it already had available, Gervis said.
“This seemed like a fabulous way to use the technology,” he said.
In the weeks leading up to Election Day, students held debates of their own in class. Different groups would act as surrogates for the candidates and discuss the finer points of the candidates’ positions.
Two students, Das and seventh-grader Lauren Vasquez, identified themselves as Democrats who had favored Sen. Hillary Clinton, but both said they would support Sen. John McCain.
“Personally, I don’t like Obama’s reasonings,” Vasquez said.
But when the votes were tallied, Inglewood students mirrored the nation at large, supporting President-elect Barack Obama, although, they gave him a much larger margin of victory. Out of 963 votes, Obama won 630 to McCain’s 333 — a 2-1 margin.
Gervis said that the students also spent time studying the governor’s race, watching videos of each candidate.
In the northern part of Sammamish, home to Republican candidate Dino Rossi, the governor’s race takes on an unusual wrinkle, Gervis said.
“They all know the Rossi kids,” he said.
Gervis said he tried to explain to the students that Sammamish pride is probably not a good reason to vote for someone. If they agree with his positions, or even if they know and like him personally, that can work, but geographical proximity should not be a criteria, he said.
Inglewood was not a predictor in that race. In the school, Rossi won by a 57-43 margin.
Gervis said that teachers also wanted students to study a ballot initiative.
“It’s a part of our process,” he said.
They chose to go with I-985, the proposal to allow vehicles to use carpool lanes and to change some highway funding procedures. The faculty reasoned that traffic is something the students could relate to, and that it would not generate the kinds of emotions surrounding I-1000, the assisted suicide measure.
On I-985, again, the students bucked the overall trend, supporting by a 53-47 margin the measure that failed in the real election.
Editor Ari Cetron can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 233, or samrev@isspress.com.
Comments
Got something to say?
Before you comment, please note:
- These comments are moderated.
- Comments should be relevant to the topic at hand and contribute to its discussion.
- Personal attacks and/or excessive profanity will not be tolerated and such comments will not be approved.
- This is not your personal chat room or forum, so please stay on topic.
