Students shouldn't be political pawns

Area schools run elections and mock elections with some regularity.

When they do, all candidates, or those portraying them, typically get a chance to campaign, to present the arguments for themselves and to hear and react to charges from their opponents. The school or district population gets the benefit of a thorough hearing of all sides and all parties and plenty of time to weigh their options. And then a vote is taken.

That is how democracy works in America and is modeled in our schools, or should be.

It's unfortunate and surprising that that doesn't sound like how it happened in Northwest Suburban High School District 214 and perhaps some other area school districts recently when it came to proposals for a ring road for O'Hare International Airport.

A few District 214 parents and students have complained they were pressed by their elected school board and Superintendent David Schuler to, in essence, vote for the plan being promoted by Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson.

We don't fault Johnson drumming up support for one of the seven road designs that wouldn't threaten his community's industrial park.

If the ring road goes through the park, Johnson contends, District 214 could lose $5 million a year in tax revenues. Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59 likely would take a huge hit as well. Of course Johnson is going to do what he can to stop that from happening. But in our school communities, we expect fair campaigns.

Jack Redding, an 18-year-old Elk Grove High School senior, doesn't believe he got one.

"They presented it to us like there were no other options," Redding told Daily Herald staff writer Sheila Ahern. "I'm in debate; I know there are two sides to every story."

Or, maybe seven sides.

One of Redding's classmates had no problem with the way district officials handled the ring road push, though he acknowledged the information they received was restricted.

It might be that the Johnson-supported option is the most compelling one for area residents, students and parents. This debate over improving access and traffic flow to O'Hare is not new. It's been going on for years.

Schuler and the majority of the District 214 board members have a duty to present all the options to students and parents; to teach about the pros and cons of all seven proposals. They had the time to do this if they were determined to be drawn into this political discourse.

But it didn't happen that way. We worry that it doesn't happen that way before our impressionable children far too often when these debates come up over ring roads or tax questions.

District 214 board member Miriam "Mimi" Cooper-Spickard said she, too, had concerns about using students as pawns in a political game, but allowed herself to be swayed by the financial ramifications and a looming hearing.

She called it a teaching moment. It's a moment that was lost. We can't let that happen again.