Political Survey Results (Article)
by Sarah Formica
Nottingham High School’s Journalism class recently created a survey to see how the Northstar community felt about select political issues. The survey was published on Star Status, the school newspaper website, prior to the Presidential election on November 3, 2020. Over 100 Northstars responded to the eight questions relating to their political beliefs.
Here are the final results and some of their opinions:
Here are the final results and some of their opinions:
In response to the question “Why do you consider yourself Republican, Democrat, or Independent”, one Nottingham freshman stated that she was an independent because “We all need rights no matter our skin color, race, gender, and sexuality. We all are human. We all are made up of DNA , skin, and bones. Everybody should be respected."
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Students were then asked to answer the question, “In your opinion, do you think gun control laws and regulations should be changed? Why or why not?” One student from the junior class said, “I think there should definitely be some restrictions on guns along with some gun control laws. There should be more in depth background checks. I think we've had too many cases where the wrong people had legal access to carry a firearm.” On the other hand, one senior said, “Yes, I think we have too many gun restrictions and need to level them back.”
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When asked to go further into detail, one Nottingham senior said, “I do not exactly agree with the concept of people voting when they are in jail because even though it might be fine to let some with lesser offenses vote, it could eventually lead to those who committed more serious crimes gaining eligibility to vote and I do not want that for society.” A Northstar sophomore said, “I think that every person living in America who is of age should be allowed to vote because they should have a say in their own future. These decisions affect their lives too.”
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When asked whether or not they thought the federal government was doing a good job, one senior said, “Absolutely not. The United States is taking 10 steps backwards for even allowing Amy Coney Barrett to be a new federal judge. The U.S. separates church from state and Amy Coney Barrett does the exact opposite of that. She is scaring a whole group of females and people in the LGBTQ+ community and making them fear about their basic human rights. Also, there are so many crises going on in the U.S. such as COVID-19, racism, gender inequality, immigration, etc. that no one is doing a thing to help fix.” A freshman, however, disagreed and said, “Yes, because we are still one nation.”
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Overall, it was interesting to see the opinions of the students at Nottingham. The majority of students seem to be very politically aware. It is important to have these hard conversations because, as one of the graphs above shows, teenagers’ political views are highly influenced by their peers and what they see online. Listening to others and learning from the people around you can help this generation make change. “Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among rocks.” -Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)