Politics have increasingly found their way into schools, where students equipped with phones can read and share information outside the control of teachers and parents.
Naseem Bennett, 17, talks about the upcoming elections in which 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to vote for the first time ever in Oakland and Berkeley’s school board elections after getting off of classes at Oakland Tech High School in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024.
The minors’ ballots will be limited to races for seats on the cities’ school boards, which govern the policies and finances of local districts. The goal is to increase turnout. Tsneem Alshalyan, 17, talks about the upcoming elections in which 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to vote for the first time ever in Oakland and Berkeley’s school board elections after getting off of classes at Oakland Tech High School in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024.
Four of Oakland’s seven school board seats are up for election this year in voting districts that span the town’s geography, including Oakland Tech, McClymonds High, Fremont High and Castlemont High. “It’s a pretty modest step. It’s not that radical,” said Steve Hill, an election expert with the advocacy group FairVote, of the East Bay’s school-board-only measures. “Young people are so much more informed than they ever were back then.”
“If there’s a resolution supporting Palestinians, I think students will want to know who we should vote for that would support it,” said Khadija G., a 17-year-old senior at Oakland Tech who requested that her full last name not be published.
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