State High: Teen Reject Board’s Labling As Pawns of ‘Vision,’ Parents

By Dena Pauling, The Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa.

May 8–STATE COLLEGE — Standing before news reporters outside the North Building after school Monday, five State College Area High School students said a student protest last week was something they participated in themselves — not at the urging of their parents or State High Vision.

The students also took issue with statements made by four school board incumbents who on Thursday had said they were concerned by the student protest and think children are being used as “pawns in a political game.” Board members had commended the students for their free speech but expressed displeasure with the adults in the debate.

Still, students took the board members’ statements as an attack on them and their attempts to rally the student body against the State High project they oppose.

“We have not been manipulated by our parents. We have not been backed by State High Vision, and we most certainly have not subscribed to any campaign agenda or any unbecoming behaviors as claimed in Thursday’s statement,” said Melissa Bradley, a ninth-grader. “… It is uncomfortable and worrisome to have student input and action be completely discounted by the very people who profess to run a students-focused school district.”

Bradley was joined by senior Andy Colwell, sophomore Scott Eaton and juniors Maria Malizia and Dalton Carra. At least a dozen other students looked on. All five said no school board member came to talk with them before the incumbents held their press conference. The board just assumed, the students said, that last Tuesday’s protest was connected to State High Vision and/or the election — which is now a week away.

Malizia’s father, Sam, is a member of the political-action committee backing the five school board challengers in the election. But Sam Malizia said Monday he had no part in the protest and was out-of-state when it occurred.

State High Vision has said that of the 33 high school-aged children of the adults in its executive committee, six participated in the protest. SHV is a citizens’ group that has been outspoken against the board’s State High renovation project for more than a year. Some of its members are school board challengers.

During the protest, about 100 students walked out of class and stood outside the North Building, chanting and holding signs saying “Save Our School.” At one point, school administrators told everyone to go inside the South Building and forced a Centre Daily Times reporter to leave. Shortly thereafter, the students walked back outside and kept protesting.

The protest died down after about two hours.

Students went back to class, and school administrators said those who participated would serve detentions.

“The purpose of last week’s student protest was to voice disapproval over the current renovation,” Eaton said. “We approve of a renovation of the current North and South buildings to meet necessary standards and expansion where needed to increase teaching space and facilities to account for growth.”

In a separate interview, Michael G. Stewart, a 2006 State High graduate and 19-year-old Penn State student, said he was pleased to see his peers were getting involved in the renovation process. But he said students had plenty of opportunities to comment on the renovations at least two years ago.

Stewart was president of student government in his junior and senior years. He said he oversaw “countless meetings with the school board and the very architects that are designing the new school.” But the biggest group that turned out at a student government meeting to hear about the project was about 50 students, he said.

“These people were eager to hear the voice of the students,” Stewart said of the board and the architects. “The only problem was that the students were silent.”

Stewart said the climate of the election seems so partisan to the point where it seems impossible for any side to submit a plan that everyone would agree to. He experienced this climate two years ago when he would try to get groups to come and present their sides to the students, he said. Board members and State High Vision wanted to meet on separate occasions, instead of together, he said.

“It’s really sad because there is so much more to education than just the school building,” Stewart said. “I feel like the school district we have now prepared me so well for college and that has nothing to do with the buildings.”

Dena Pauling can be reached at 231-4619.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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