BHSN seniors engage in election

Feeling the restlessness of their final class period Friday afternoon, 12th grade students chatted among themselves at the start of their government class at Bloomington High School North.

“Let’s start with some current events,” social studies teacher Geoff Aiken said.
Logan Blake, a senior hoping to study pre-law next year, listened to Aiken as he discussed the Hurricane Sandy news coverage.

“I’m curious to see what they’re going to do with the whole election,” Blake said. “They can’t even get to the polls.”

On the chalkboard at the back of the classroom, a scrawled out message reminded students to turn in their second civic participation project.

The civic participation project involves them demonstrating engagement in the Bloomington community or in the local or national political process, Aiken said. Three times per semester, students must volunteer at a local nonprofit organization, attend a Bloomington City Council meeting or watch a presidential debate. They then write an essay describing the event and their reaction to it.

“We’ve found that our students go above and beyond,” Social Studies department chair Pat Wilson said. “We see a rollover into an increased awareness of what’s going on.”

Several students in Aiken’s class chose to engage in community service for their second project. Senior Jalen Williams volunteered at Habitat for Humanity.

Blake, Williams and Michael Lenning II chose to register to vote for their first project entry. In early September, the League of Women Voters worked with the 12th grade government and economics classes to get eligible students register to vote, Aiken said.

“It’s a really exciting time to be a first-time voter,” Lenning said.

Blake watched all three presidential debates for his projects and said he found himself actually enjoying them. Since he is taking both economics and government, he must complete six project entries by the end of the semester, a civic participation “double duty,” he said.

“I think having the election our senior year, we got really lucky,” Blake said. “But some of the kids in our class probably don’t feel the same way we do.”

Lenning said for many high school seniors, who must balance their senior year workload with college applications, it is difficult to process the different issues affecting them in this year’s election.

“A lot of things have happened in a short period of time,” Lenning said. “It’s staggering, overwhelming.”

Blake said he feels many of his classmates lack an interest in the election or are unsure how to the handle the information discussed in the debates.

“I think that’s why a lot of people shy away from it,” Blake said.

Outside of school, Lenning works with a construction company. The conversations he has with his coworkers and family members have helped him stay engaged in the election, he said.  

Lenning said he supports most of the Republican candidates running for election but is more interested in the local races.

“I’m mainly going to stick to the local government, because that’s who is really affecting you,” he said.

Blake and Lenning said they hope to attend a city council meeting for a future project entry and are especially interested in participating in the open microphone portion of the meetings.

Aiken said he often goes to city council meetings with the students as part of their project and remembers seeing up to 30 of his students present in one of the
meetings.

Sometimes the students even speak up during the meetings, Aiken said.

“One kid thought he needed more sidewalks in his neighborhood, so he got up and asked for more sidewalks,” Aiken said.

City Council Attorney Dan Sherman said he recalled seeing high school students in several city council meetings. Council members will often recognize the youth in the room and sometimes give a group a tour of the chambers prior to a meeting, he said.

“It’s always good to see young people out in the chambers,” City Council Vice President Susan Sandberg said. “It certainly is helpful to us when people get engaged.”

The project’s main goal is to get students to realize the importance of being involved in their community on a regular basis, even after the project has ended, Aiken said.

“They’re very comfortable in their high school world, but they’ll be out of that world soon,” he said. “We need to find ways to get them out there.”