Last modified: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 12:14

AM EDT

Lynn student pols take center stage

By Thor Jourgensen and Laura Paine / The Daily

Item

LYNN - Students in the Lynn school system had

the opportunity to see what their futures would
hold if they chose to take on city roles, such as
mayor, superintendent or school committee The Kennedy family had a stake in Lynn's
member during the annual Student Government Student Government Day Tuesday. Here,
Day. Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy stands beside
her niece and Mayor For The Day Melissa
For the last 13 years, School Committee Kennedy as she sits at the mayor's desk in her
Secretary Thomas Iarrobino has been educating City Hall office. Item photo / Owen O'Rourke
the selected students about the way in which
administrations function, from legislature right down to how the school department, city council
and school committees work. They discuss extensively roles of each elected official and put
together a series of items to be discussed at meetings. They spent the day paired up with city
officials and then spent a little time walking around in their shoes.

Student City Council members debated proposals ranging from muzzling pit bulls to hosting a
concert at Fraser Field Monday night.

Councilor and Lynn Vocational Technical Institute student Cindy Deleon proposed hosting a
youth night at High Rock Tower while Councilor and Classical High School student Casey
Johnson proposed the Fraser Field concert.

Councilor at large and English High School student Brendan Carritte offered a motion revising
the City Charter to include gender-neutral language and Councilor and Classical student
Courtney Speropoulos suggested allowing the Police Department to open a substation.

Councilor and St. Mary's High School student Kristen Ferrari proposed muzzling pit bulls while
Classical student and Councilor Rosalynn Lim proposed installing basketball hoops at
Strawberry Playground.

Councilor and English High School student Jack Carter called for the city to form an anti-
bullying task force and Councilor and English student Christian Cyr offered a motion to have
convenience stores place trash cans on their premises.

Councilor and St. Mary's student Rachel Faieta called on the public schools to include
community service in school curriculum and Councilor and English student Anjeza Beharaj
suggested the School Committee study the feasibility of allowing students to leave school
grounds during lunch periods.
Councilor and Classical student Abigail Field offered a motion to make Lynn a green community
as defined by state law.

Students at the School Committee meeting included Melissa Kennedy, of St. Mary's as mayor,
Alison Brauner of Lynn English as the deputy superintendent, Shawnee Haynes of Lynn
Technical Vocational Technical Institute as the superintendent, Lizet Medina of Lynn Classical,
Shanel Bird of LVTI, and Joe Chau, Corina Pinto and Aimee Nunez of St. Mary's as school
committee members.

During the meeting, members discussed reforming the health curriculum to cover safe sex
practices in addition to abstinence programs, open campus for responsible seniors, reforming
Physical Education classes to include nutrition, first aid and CPR training.

They also addressed revising the Secondary School Suspension Policies to reduce the number of
suspensions and to host suspensions in school.

There was discussion about revising the cell phone policy, allowing students to check their
phones during class in case of an emergency. They touched upon the Food Services menu,
asking that the committee consider requesting vendors to offer more menu items and to change
the menu semi-annually. All motions were approved.

Students who participated said that they would consider taking part in school committee and city
council as adults and that it also helped the real school committee to see what was on the minds
of the students.

"I think it was helpful because it showed us a bunch of problems in school that we need to work
on. I think it helped the school committee too because they know what's on our minds," Chau
said.

Students also thought that it was nice to know who was helping to orchestrate their education.

"It was nice to see someone is trying to take care of us. The only way to promote change is if
people are vocal about it. Its nice to see that even in a huge school, like Lynn English High
School, people are actually focusing on your personal needs, on my personal education," Brauner
said.

Nunez agreed, saying that she learned how the elected officials responsibilities really do have an
impact and it is nice to be familiarized with those people.

"Kids are really impacted by what happens in their schools and it is important to see who is in
charge of making those changes and improving their school. It was interesting. It's important for
kids to get involved in things like this," she said.

Kennedy said that it was fun and that she was really excited about seeing what the Mayor does,
and that Student Government Day is important.
"We are going to be doing this someday. We are going to be the basis of the school committee
and the government. I think it's good to know what you're going to be doing and how important
you are to everything that goes on. I thought it was a really good experience," Kennedy said.

"It has been a very, very enjoyable day for me and a great way to really sit down with the kids,"
Iarrobino said. "They are great, they're diverse, they're full of ideas and they're full of energy."