By taking pen to paper one afternoon during their lunch
break, students at Geneva Community High School learned yet one more way
citizens can appeal to lawmakers’ attentions.In its continued support of allowing student voices to be
heard, GHS participated in a letter-writing campaign on April 20, a “Day of
Action” during which communities called on lawmakers to take real steps to end
school violence. The month prior, GHS administrators had supported a 17-minute student-led
walkout to honor the victims from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The optional letter-writing campaign was set up in the
cafeteria during students’ lunch periods, and students were told they could
write on school safety or any other topics that concerned them. Students were
provided with a list and map of state representatives and senators, as well as
writing materials. General guidelines were provided on how to write a formal
letter to lawmakers, which followed best practices according to Democracy
Program Director Shawn Healy, PhD, from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
Letter-writing guidelines included:
“Dear Senator _________________” or
“Dear Representative ______________.”, make an appeal for this congressperson
to vote in a certain way or to support a certain issue, introduce yourself,
giving your name and year in school, tell them you are a student at Geneva High
School, and you may also mention that we are an Illinois Democracy School, make
an anchor statement about why your issue is important and should be acted upon
by our legislature, you can follow this with specific reasons or
examples/stories if you would like, etc.
Principal Tom Rogers emphasized in a letter home to parents
that the activity empowered students to express their own views. “Students are not
being told how or what to think about a particular issue. The letters have not
been pre-written, and it is an optional activity,” he said.
GHS is a designated Democracy
School within the McCormick Foundation’s Democracy
School Program, whose mission is to provide high-quality civic learning
experiences to all young people to develop the knowledge, skills and
dispositions to facilitate informed participation in public life.
“We just want students to use their voice. No matter what
that voice is,” said GHS Library Director Elizabeth Grubaugh, who co-organizes
Democracy School activities with Social Studies Teacher Sue Nagle. The pair
have been instrumental in the school’s designation process for Illinois
Democracy Schools Initiative; GHS has held this distinction for the last 10
years.