Lake Park 'giddy' over inauguration

In his 10 years as a teacher, Don Fulmer has never seen his students at Lake Park High School's West Campus act like such children.

And that's a good thing.

While waiting for Barack Obama to take the oath of office and give his inauguration speech Tuesday, Jan. 20, students filled every single desk in his classroom, where Fulmer projected the live newsfeed onto a screen.

Then they filed the aisles.

And the when the classroom was bursting with more than 60 teens, even more crowded outside the door to hear their new president speak.

"There's excitement about the whole process," Fulmer said. "They were as giddy as small children, constantly asking 'What's going to happen? When is it going to happen?'"

Even after the main event, they weren't done. Seniors in Fulmer's advanced placement government class debated the merits of Obama's first words as Commander in Chief.

Bill Re thought his message was too "generic," while Jessica Dillard admitted to dabbing tears.

But Mike Weisshaar found hope when Obama noted that his father might have been refused service at a restaurant 60 years ago, while today a man of color was sworn into the highest office in the land.

"That should give anybody a lot of optimism," Weisshaar said. "If we as a country have gone through that much of a change, how much change could we go through with Barack as our leader?"