P-Russ's recap:

Hi, all,

Just wanted to ensure you all saw this article from Alx Lee of the Tri-City Record! Props to Rodericka Hale-Toledo, Haylei Redhouse, MacAllen Cousens, Dylan Lansing, Kollin Lee, and Ishi Reale for showing up and speaking their minds!

Best,

Russell

P.S. Don't forget that we are hosting a second watch party, this one for the vice-presidential debate next Tuesday (October 1). Click here to sign up!

Full text of article:

How are students feeling this election season?

Students speak on social media, mental health and the debate

By Alx Lee Tri-City Record Reporter

Friday, Sep 20, 2024 12:33 PM Updated Friday, Sep. 20, 2024 12:33 PM

Former President Donald Trump, a Republican, and Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, participate during an ABC News presidential debate at the National Constitution Center on Sept. 10 in Philadelphia. (Alex Brandon/The Associated Press)

Frustrated, intrigued, terrified and embarrassed.

That’s are how six Navajo Preparatory School students felt after watching the presidential debate Sept. 10 at a sponsored watch party on campus.

The watch party was sponsored by the speech and debate team and Lesley Tohtsoni’s History of the Americas class.

On Oct. 1, the students plan to watch the vice presidential debate at another sponsored watch party.

Tri-City Record sat down with the students for their perspective on the presidential election and its impact.

English instructor John Russell said he has seen less interest among his freshmen than in previous elections; however, it is a leading subject for the speech and debate team.

“I do let them know that this is the last election where they won't be able to vote,” he said.

Dylan Lansing, a junior, acknowledged that this election will be the last until he can vote, so he has been seizing the opportunity to educate himself.

“I feel like this election season started to involve me more in politics all around,” said junior Mack Cousens. “I wasn't as intrigued into the subject as I may have been a couple years ago.”

Rodericka Hale-Toledo, a senior, works with Northeast Arizona Native Democrats that helps her inform the Native population.

Toledo said this election season has affected her mental health as she tries to keep her community informed.

“The things that Trump has planned, it does affect our community a lot,” she said. “It's very mentally draining to think about because I love my community – I want to try to help it in any way that it can.”

In looking at social media, the students agreed election has impacted their knowledge and perception of the election.

Cousens felt that he has had knowledge at his fingertips, but also bias.

“Whether it’s intentional or unintentional, there’s a lot of bias and misinformation inside social media, and I think that's become something you got to become way more aware of – what type of information you're taking it and where you're getting it from,” Cousens said.

Toledo also sees social media as a tool for political information, but that it comes with a threat of misinformation.

Lansing said he has been intrigued to seek the truth of it all.

“Obviously, social media with any type of news goes around pretty quick, and especially within the election, it feels like everyone has something to say, no matter true or false, and it's all around us, because it’s such an important factor in a lot of people's lives,” Lansing said.

To keep from being overstimulated on social media, Lansing said users need to have a filter for themselves while getting past the jokes to find insightful commentary.

Social media around the election has also brought students to create their own content, Russell said.

Freshman Kollin Lee used social media to grab reactions of his peers at the debate watch party to share with his family in Fort Defiance, Arizona.

On campus, the election has been a matter of discussing opinions about the candidates, Toledo said.

“I hear frequent conversation, with variant levels of seriousness, but I do tend to see more of an unserious take to the election – a lot of jokes,” Cousens said.

Russell said for those who are unable to vote it may feel like it’s not worth their time to be involved, and he reminds them of the impact the next president might have into their adulthood.

“I graduated high school in the middle of the Bush administration, and I graduated college just as Bush was leaving office and amid the financial crash of 2007,” Russell said. “This person who wins is going to have a lot of power over your life for the next few years.”

The debate

In witnessing the exchanges between former Republican President Donald Trump and Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris, the students took note of their demeanor.

“Trump has spent a lot of his debate time actually attacking whoever he's debating instead of actually delivering goals, and that's how he tends to get under the skin of whoever he's debating,” Cousens said. “But Kamala seemed to deflect a lot of the attack that she got from Trump, and I thought that was a very mature move from her not reacting to the blows that she would take.”

Haylei Redhouse, a senior, said she felt Trump did not have an outline of speaking points while Harris appeared to stick to a plan.

“Trump throughout did not name a single goal that he wanted to meet,” Toledo said. “She (Harris) kept naming the goals that she wanted to achieve when she becomes president.”

Cousens said it was awesome to see a good amount of fact-checking at the September debate.

“I will say that the interviewers did, from what I could tell, a pretty bad job at keeping it neutral, because they were attacking Trump more with the fact checks than they were to Kamala,” Redhouse said.

Russell noted that Trump’s responses exceeded his time limit while Redhouse referenced the heavyweight question regarding Russia in comparison to the follow-up question given to Harris.

“I think those kind of questions got on my nerves, because it’s not as heavyweight as what they just asked Trump,” she said. “I feel like if they worded the questions better and gave her the same platform that they gave Trump to answer such hard questions … her answers could have been strengthened a lot more.”

Immigration, water rights, oil and renewable energy were topics of interest the students mentioned they would like to see addressed by the next president.

After watching the debate, five out of six students said that if they were able to vote, it would be an easy decision to determine a candidate.

Both Russell and Cousens were grateful that Navajo Prep allowed them to engage in topics such as the election.

“I think it’s really commendable that the leadership here recognizes the importance of giving the kids the time and space to engage and think about this sort of stuff,” Russell said.