FLHS Students Participate in 2nd Annual Mock Election and Debate

Katelyn Chau, Crystal Lam, Ji Li, and Jonathan Wong|November 5, 2016

Students posing as Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Jill Stein, and Gary Johnson participate in the Mock Debate at Francis Lewis High School

A mock debate was held on November 3 at Francis Lewis High School where students portrayed their assigned presidential candidates. Students were given the chance to debate amongst each other, discussing the policies and beliefs that reflected on their real life counterparts.

Students either volunteered to be a presidential candidate or were nominated by their classmates. The rest of the class served as the campaign team by making posters and using social media to encourage students to vote for their assigned candidate. Not only did students portray primary candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, they also participated as third party candidates Joe Stein and Gary Johnson.

AnaMarie Martinez poses as Donald Trump in the Mock Debate

“Everyday and every night I did my research,” said Senior Anamarie Martinez, who portrayed Donald Trump. “I didn’t want to be unnatural, I wanted to speak for myself and I was trying not to look at my paper.”

Although the majority of students in attendance were not able to vote in the actual election, this event gave them the opportunity to vote for who they believed delivered the stronger argument.

“The purpose of the Mock Election is to educate students on the importance of voting, explain how voting works, how political parties work to secure your vote and show how voters must educate themselves before coming to the polls,” said Social Studies teacher and event coordinator Mrs. Jandly.

Besides educating students, the debate successfully mirrored reality and influence students’ viewpoints on the candidates.

“Most of the things they’re doing in here resemble things that they’re doing in real life,” said Junior Michael Mancuso. “Like for Donald Trump, the students actually built a wall and that’s what he wants to do in real life.”

Both students and teachers were excited about the event as it was a unique and fun method of learning.

“I see excitement, I hear kids talking about it, and I can kind of see the intensity of students preparing for this,” said Social Studies AP Mr. Dunphy. “You could tell that they want to win and do the best they can to inform their peers and classmates and in a lot of ways, we’re going to do that better than the actual candidates.”