SVVSD high school students tackle issues, learn from community leaders
Mar. 30—About 65 St. Vrain Valley high school students took a break from classes Thursday to talk to city council members, business leaders, police officers and other community leaders as they developed solutions to complex topics.
"I came into this thinking, 'I will just do a project,' " Mead High junior Andrea Flores said. "But I'm actually learning things I can use. We're talking to public leaders, and we use their words to make something of our own."
The Doing Democracy Day program, held at the Longmont Museum, is in its 13th year. Organizers asked government teachers from all the district's schools, as well as the APEX homeschool program, to invite students to attend.
"I love seeing students engaged with local leaders," said Justelle Grandsaert, a Silver Creek social studies teacher and Democracy Day program coordinator. "Students realize they are problem solvers and critical thinkers. They realize that their voice matters."
About 35 community members participated in the event.
"This helps grow the next generation of leaders," said Frederick town attorney Jason Meyers. "It's important to get people involved in local government young. It helps empower kids to come to the table with solutions."
Grouped together from different schools, students were assigned topics Thursday morning, then conducted research and interviewed community leaders. Topics included fentanyl, school safety, homelessness, screen addiction, social emotional learning and Broncos payment money uses.
"They're giving us a topic and we get to explore it any way we want," said Mead High junior Ben Whitcomb.
After researching, each group prepared a presentation to give before judges. The top three presentations were given before everyone at the event, then the judges chose a single winner. The winning team gave the presentation on social emotional learning.
During the research session, Longmont Police officer David Bonday pulled a dose of Narcan, the opioid antidote, out of his pocket as he answered questions from the group researching fentanyl addiction and overdoses.
"I could Narcan you right now and it means nothing," he said as he talked about how the nasal spray is safe to administer, even if it's not known if a person has overdosed. "It only bonds to opiates."
Several students said they didn't know much about fentanyl before they were assigned to the topic Thursday — and, they added, that's a problem. One of their solutions is to increase education about the deadly drug in health classes.
"If you inform people of the dangers, they can be more aware and stay safe," said Sage Wynja, a junior at Lyons Middle Senior High.
Other ideas included more treatment centers, though they noted it's tricky to find qualified people to staff the centers and to be able to afford to pay them a living wage.
"It's a bad system," Silver Creek junior Savannah Collier said. "It's hard to get help. So much needs to change."
The students working on school safety said they support keeping school resource officers as a way to prevent school violence, but think more training on diversity would help address concerns that some students don't feel safe around uniformed officers.
"All people would feel safe and heard," Silver Creek junior Evvie Bowman said.
The group researching homelessness settled on sustainable affordable housing, with features like solar panels to reduce heating bills, as their main solution. Mental health and addiction resources, both online and in person, also would be available.
"It feels like we have a lot of resources and not solutions," Silver Creek junior Kai Quinn said. "Not having affordable housing is the main root of homelessness."
He said he likes that the format is more interactive and self led than a typical school research project.
"We can form our own opinions," he said. "I'm enjoying it."
