Senior Students Prepare for the Presidential Election

            Many Davis High seniors will be taking part in the presidential election between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney.  Teachers have started to prepare them for election day, which will be held on Nov. 6.

In Kristen Swanstrom’s fifth period U.S. Government class, there are two seniors who will be participating in the election. “[I’m] excited to be voting,” senior Natalie Chalfant said.

Some students did not share her enthusiasm. A few of Swanstrom’s students stated that they did not care about the election. “Some of them are [ready to vote], most of them are, some are not,” Swanstrom said.

Social studies teachers are giving their students information about the candidates in class. They show power points, play video and audio clips, and hand out articles that give information about what each candidate believes. This way, social studies teachers can be sure that they’ve done their part to educate their voting students.

Teacher Fern O’Brien thinks that students also need to be willing to go out and get the information on the candidates themselves. “It’s not easy these days to find what the stances are on the candidates. You really have to go out and look up their platform,” O’Brien said.                 “Students should be very serious about the voting. This is the first time they’ve been able to participate in something so vast and important and they should really take it seriously,” sophomore Emma Stenz said.

The general opinion is that seniors are mature enough to vote in this year’s election. “They’ve been living for 18 years, they’re mature enough according to the law. Just because they’re still students doesn’t mean they’re any less mature than any other young voter,” sophomore Claudia Shebloski said.

“I think they’re ready. [They’re] no more apathetic than the average American,” O’Brien said.