MANCHESTER, NH – True to their name and mission, members of the Young Organizers United (Y.O.U) – students representing all four city high schools – have spent the past few months organizing a community candidate forum. On Oct. 19 the public is invited to attend the event, featuring several school board and aldermanic candidates.
Moderator for the event is Mia-Rose Taylor, a West High School junior who said she’s only a little nervous about the prospect of questioning the candidates.
The overall consensus during a last-minute group planning session on Tuesday was that it’s empowering to remind elected officials that policies they make directly affect future voters.
The planning process was a learning curve for most of the Y.O.U. members, who meet twice weekly after school at the Granite State Organizing Project office on Elm Street.
“Each time we met we took one problem at a time,” said Mia, from developing questions to contacting all the candidates.
Getting a consensus for a date was also a challenge, said Nate Duval, an assistant coordinator for the group through his work with Granite State Organizing Project. Duval, now in his third year as an accounting major at SNHU, came up through Y.O.U. while attending Central High School.
“Most of the questions they’ve come up with are around education and equity, or dealing with having enough faculty or bus drivers,” Duval said. “And mental health keeps coming up. They’re passionate about that.”
Manchester School of Technology senior John Alade said there hasn’t been anything “normal” about high school for the city’s 2024 graduating class. The “Covid-effect” coupled with this school year’s increasing use of technology for routine activities has created a lot of stress for students.
And it feels like it’s taking a toll.
“We just had a suicide of a Central student last week, and also a middle school student last year,” Alade said. “Before Covid you didn’t hear about things like that.”
Manchester School of Technology senior Chevanese Williams said a new policy this year that affects students across the district requires them to use their computers to let a teacher know when they have to use the restroom, see the school nurse, go to another class to make up a test or see their guidance counselors.
“To me, having to use technology and write everything on the computer – like for getting a bathroom pass – is a big change. And if there is a certain number of people already in the bathroom, you have to wait to go,” Chevanese said.
The students said that the changes likely were made by school administrators to control and address issues, which vary from school to school but can include excessive vaping to physical fights.
“As far as having to request a bathroom pass on your computer goes, some devious smart kid will get past that,” John said. “They’re just creating villains and sneaky kids.”
Having the opportunity to meet with current and aspiring elected officials is one way of opening lines of communication.
In addition to organizing a community forum, many of the Y.O.U. students attend school board meetings to speak up on issues, and were pivotal in getting AP African-American studies into the high schools as part of the 2024 curriculum, Duval says.
The forum on Thursday will focus more on community-based issues including homelessness, competency-based learning and specific strategies to attract more teachers, bus drivers and paraprofessionals.
“We worked as a group to pull together the questions – our youth connected with their communities to find out what some of the common issues are,” Duval said.
The students made a concerted effort to reach all candidates to participate. However, any candidate who is interested in participating can do so. Please contact Y.O.U. director Sudi Lett at slett@granitestateorganizing.org or call 603-657-4969.
The forum is free and open to the public to be held Oct. 19 at Central High School in the PA building from 6-8 p.m.
Candidates who have RSVP’d so far include:
- Gary Hamer
- Nicole Leapley
- Bill Barry
- Chris Potter
- Patrick Long
- Elizabeth O’Neil
- Brian Cole
- Jason Bonilla
- Peter Argeropoulos
- Bryce Kaw-uh