Though Lanna Teh isn’t old enough to vote, she’s had arguments with friends over the election this year.
“My friends and I talk about it and have fights,” said Teh, a sophomore at Edmonds-Woodway High School. “Even though I’m underage to vote, it affects my life and my family’s life.”
Teenagers are historically known for apathy when it comes to politics — the 18-25 age group votes the least.
But this year many students, like Teh, have an avid interest in politics.
“The last time I saw this much excitement was with John Kennedy,” said Daun Brown, Edmonds-Woodway High School social studies teacher.
“We had kids in 2004 starting to get excited, but this year it exploded,” said social studies teacher Bridget Mahoney-Fernandez.
The school put on a mock election for all students during school Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 4, to be followed Tuesday night by an election party.
The party was expected to draw hundreds of students, parents and staff, dressed in red and blue, to the school to watch eight TV screens, eat snacks and color in a map as the votes rolled in. The events capped off weeks of study in social studies classes about the candidates and their views.
Student Alex Singh has been reading the news and watching “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central to stay up on candidate coverage. He watched all three presidential debates.
“I think they do care,” he said of other students. “It’s a historic election and affects us a lot this time.”
Most students get their news from the Internet and “The Colbert Report,” added his friend Steven Alfi.
Student John Culp has had arguments with friends about politics and has seen football players put political stickers on their lockers. He didn’t have that much interest in politics in the past, but he does now.
“I think people feel pretty strongly,” he said. “It’s our country and it’s important we get back on track.”
Young people in many schools and colleges lean toward Barack Obama because he’s younger and promises change, said Brown, the social studies teacher.
Sophomore Tyler Blackburn said students he knows support Obama because he’ll help schools and the economy.
He supports Obama for a different reason.
“I heard (Obama) wants to pull troops out of Iraq slowly,” Blackburn said. “My dad’s in the Army and I don’t want him to go back.”
His father has served three tours in Iraq.
“When he got back it took him a month to stop shaking,” Blackburn said.
In the mock election, student Chris Routen voted for McCain though many other students support Obama, he said.
“It’s morals, and it’s who my family voted for,” he said. “You can’t just go with the flow all the time.”
By the next election, Teh said, she will be able to vote in the real election.
In social studies classes the last few weeks, students have been learning about candidates’ views through voters’ pamphlets, creating their own political ads and other activities to prepare them for just that.
“The goal is to let kids develop their own system of how to choose,” Brown said.
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