YOUNGSTOWN Teens replace government officials for day

The council-president-for-a-day had to face a press grilling after the session.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Megan Wagner wanted to challenge the city's curfew for teens, so she went to city council.
The 17-year-old Wilson High School junior told council members that kids these days are busy with work and sports. Youths who are with people age 18 and older shouldn't have to worry about the 11:30 p.m. weekday and 12:30 a.m. weekend curfews, she said.
"I mean, what's the problem?" Megan asked.
Council President Kelly Cecil calmly explained the curfew was needed to put limits on youths under 18 who shouldn't be out so late.
But Kelly quickly exercised her presidential powers when Meagan started to debate the topic.
"Your five minutes is up. Sorry," she said sharply, and that was that. Megan stalked off.
Later, Kelly threatened to remove the audience for being unruly while "council members" talked over other routine legislation."
What happened: Youngstown City Council meetings aren't usually quite so tense, but Wednesday's session wasn't real. Neither was the council president nor any of her colleagues.
Kelly, also a Wilson student, was among about two dozen youths from all three city high schools role-playing in this year's Student Government Day.
Students spent the morning with city officials such as council members, the mayor and the fire chief, learning about their jobs. The afternoon was spent in the mock council meeting.
Before the session, mayor-for-a-day Misha Stredrick of The Rayen School worked the room like a pro, glad-handing and otherwise greeting people.
What McKelvey said: Later, the real thing -- Mayor George M. McKelvey -- came to show her how it's done, handing out his baseball-style business cards and city lapel pins.
McKelvey told the youths he was quite impressed with the students he met during the day. Kids too often get a bad rap and are portrayed as nothing but trouble, he said.
"Meeting all of you proves that so wrong," McKelvey said.
After the session, Kelly the council president had to deal with one of McKelvey's least favorite tasks: facing tough questions from the press.
Three students, all 17-year-old seniors, acted as Vindicator reporters and fired questions at the controversial, power-hungry council president.
Rashad Adams of Chaney High School wanted to know why Kelly cut off the speaker so quickly. The lady had made her point, Kelly said.
Brittney Harris of Rayen wanted to know why Kelly wouldn't consider pushing back the curfew. Kelly said 12:30 a.m. is pretty late already.
Crystal Jackson of Wilson asked why Kelly didn't give more consideration to the speaker's position. Crystal never got an answer.
Another typical day at city hall.
rgsmith@vindy.com