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Though the message isn’t new, the president’s speech resonated with students in a Chaney English class.
YOUNGSTOWN — The students in JoAnn York’s English class at Chaney High School sat quietly as President Barack Obama’s back-to-school speech aired on the television in the corner of the room.
While a couple of boys in the back were quiet because they fell asleep, most of the 19 students listened to the president’s speech Tuesday urging them to take responsibility for their education.
The message, though not new, resonated with plenty in York’s class.
“I think he made a right point,” said Tre Little, a Chaney junior. “When things go wrong, don’t let other things push you away from what you need to do.”
Little said he’s heard the same thing from his family.
“I’m in school; I’m trying to be what I want to be,” he said. “I’m not messing with people on the streets.”
Because Obama came from a humble background, he has the credibility to encourage kids in similar situations to work hard, Little said.
Obama had financial problems “like we’re struggling now,” Little said. “My grandmother and grandfather are helping us with our bills and stuff. I’m trying to get a job. I understand what Obama [went] through because that’s the way it is.”
Little said he got into trouble when he was a freshman but is focused on his school work and has turned his life around.
ShaTille Bailey, a sophomore, also said she got into trouble last year and came close to having to repeat the ninth grade.
“But I pulled it off and I made it” to the 10th grade, she said. “I’m going to keep moving forward and do what I’ve got to do.”
Obama’s Tuesday speech to students “showed that he actually cares for us,” Bailey said. “A lot of people think we’re just kids. ... He showed he cares more about us than most people.”
Without a good education, Bailey said, students could “end up dead or selling drugs or [be] in jail.”
Some conservatives complained about the speech, saying Obama was pushing his legislative agenda to schoolchildren — something his administration said was not the case.
Those in York’s class didn’t agree that the speech, shown on C-SPAN, was political.
The president’s speech left an impression with Jamye Easton, a sophomore, that she should “pay attention more and to stop making excuses for myself. Everybody’s been telling me the same thing he’s telling me. But this is coming from the president.”
Anthony Clinkscale, a sophomore, said Obama’s speech “was all right. It was nothing I never heard before. My family tells me that everyday. But it’s the president.”
There are some students who need to hear the president’s message more than others, he said.
“School is the most important thing to keep kids off the street,” Clinkscale said.
Teachers at Chaney were given the option of showing Obama’s speech, and most of them did, said Marilyn Mastronarde, a dean at the school. One problem was Obama’s speech started shortly after noon, when a number of Chaney students were eating lunch, she said.
York, who’s taught in the Youngstown school system for more than 25 years, was impressed with Obama’s speech and the president as a role model to her students.
“The kids can relate to him,” she said. “The kids face the challenges he faced. They can relate to what he’s saying.”
skolnick@vindy.com