WASHINGTON — Teenagers taking part in a national mock election are finding it’s just like the real thing with impassioned participants, and in some cases uncomfortable, even ugly moments.
Jim Shea is a teacher at Northfield Mount Hermon School in Mount Hermon, Massachusetts. He’s the co-founder of “VOTES: Voting Opportunities for Teenagers in Every State.”
This year, he said the mock election he helped create back in 1998 is just like the actual 2016 presidential race complete with it’s contentiousness. Shea said some schools opted out of taking part this year. Teachers told him that “classroom discussions went from difficult to divisive.”
Even with the partisan moments in the current election, it’s important for students to take part, to see that it is possible in his words, “to disagree without being disagreeable,” Shea said.
Without walking kids through the process, Shea worries that teens are left “with no role models” for the election process.
Still, Shea said 160 schools, including some in Maryland, Virginia and D.C., are taking part in the event including the District’s Coolidge High School. Shea said 75,000 votes have been cast and the results will be live-streamed Sunday night in an election special.
Political pundits may want to take a look: Teens taking part in the national mock election have correctly called six out of the last seven elections.
