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Valley students make their picks for president
By Bruce Walton
YOUNGSTOWN
Adults certainly are contemplating who should be the country’s next president.
But, with Election Day less than a week away, what do some children think about who should become the nation’s leader?
Various schools, including Glenwood Junior High School in Boardman, Jackson-Milton Middle School in North Jackson, Canfield Middle School and Austintown Middle School, conducted mock elections to see who students preferred.
Glenwood Junior High students, working with the Mahoning County Board of Elections, conducted their mock election with authentic voting booths and official ballots.
Vincent Carnevale, head of the school’s social-studies department, ran the mock election as a way of educating students about the process.
“It’s a subject of interest with our kids, especially with the celebrity nature of this election,” he said. “There are a lot of kids that are interested more so than I’ve heard in years past.”
Nearly 700 students from seventh and eighth grade voted Tuesday, resulting in a close election with Clinton winning by just nine votes.
Carnevale said the mock election could be a predictor for the results of the election next week as far as Boardman Township voters are concerned.
“I think a lot of these families are going to be the ones who vote in Boardman, so I think it could be a very big predictor of what our township does and how Mahoning County votes in terms of the general election.”
Elections board officials were at Canfield Middle School for those students’ election day Friday. The school’s election, organized by seventh-grade history teachers Michael Kerensky and Jason Jugenheimer, resulted with Trump winning by 68 votes.
Tammy Snyder, third-grade science and social-studies teacher at Jackson-Milton Middle School, organized an election for students from third to sixth grade at everykidlearns.org.
The website is from the Every Kid Learns Foundation, an organization for educating kids about voting and the government with mock elections. At their school, Trump won 56 votes over Clinton. Snyder said the entire process was very smooth. She said most students talk about matching their decisions with their parents, which she said is to be expected.
At Austintown Middle School, Patte Ulery, lead social-studies teacher, also organized a mock election Tuesday through everykidlearns.org. The election was organized through registering third- to fifth-grade students. Clinton defeated Trump by more than 200 votes.
Ulery also agreed most of the students probably voted based on their parents’ views.
Some Glenwood Junior High students took a moment to explain why they supported their particular candidate.
Sam DeJoseph. an eighth-grader, said he voted for Trump because of the candidate’s ideals.
“I agree with a lot of things he says and does,” he said, though didn’t name any specifics.
Annia Robles, an eighth-grader, said she voted for Clinton because of her parents’ political views.
“My parents like her, so I just went with her,” she said. “Most of the boys like Trump.”