Contact: Jenni Brockman
Telephone: 804-443-3357
Fax: 804-443-6781
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
St. Margaret's Students Get Out The Vote
Tappahannock, VA (October 31, 2000) - Adults won't be the only ones voting in this year's presidential election. Students at St. Margaret's School will be among those statewide participating in what University of Virginia professor and political analyst Larry Sabato says already is the biggest student mock election in history.
Dwann Cutler of West Point (Pat Buchanan), Shannon Davis of Tappahannock (George W. Bush), Kathleen McDermott (Al Gore) and Tess Duncan of Irvington (Ralph Nader) enjoy a lighter moment at St. Margaret's presidential debate.
"When we talk about 'educating girls for life' at St. Margaret's, one of the things we mean is active citizenship," said History Teacher Louise Velletri. "If we don't expose them to the democratic process now, they probably won't become interested later."
The campaign season at SMS has followed the pattern of the national elections, with voter registration drives and candidate debates leading up to online voting through Sabato's Youth Leadership Initiative, a University of Virginia-based citizenship education program. Velletri's classes have watched the presidential debates, followed campaigns on the Internet, and are keeping election notebooks to document and analyze the information they are gathering to make their voting decisions. Other courses also have focused on the elections; for example, Shannon Spears' journalism students are devoting a special issue of the school newspaper to the presidential contest.
Students in Velletri's U.S. History classes also had a chance to experience the process from the candidates' perspective at a debate in late October. Girls conducted independent research on one of the four principal presidential contenders - Buchanan, Bush, Gore and Nader - then responded to questions from members of Cathy Warren's current events class in front of the faculty and student body. They took the assignment seriously, armed not only with note cards, but in some cases, also with a firm grasp of the candidates' political style.
Senior Tess Duncan of Irvington, aka "Ralph Nader," was one example. Dressed casually in a sweater, tweed jacket and corduroys, she had an immediate response to a question about the candidate's stand on the environment. "We should require a much greater degree of federal regulation to protect our resources." Then, adding a little-known fact to demonstrate her candidate's commitment, she exclaimed, "Why, I've never even owned a car!"
Junior Shannon Davis of Tappahannock, playing George Bush in a dark suit and "power tie," responded that the United States has abundant natural resources. "We need to look to ourselves, and develop the resources we have to avoid dependence on foreign oil," she said.
The Youth Leadership Initiative will announce the results of its online voting on November 2. In addition, a separate campus-wide mock election that same day will give SMS students, faculty and staff a chance to survey the school's political landscape.
