Crescent-News.com - McCain Rally - Area students experience rally

By JENNY DERRINGER

Students from area schools had quite an educational experience this morning as a couple thousand youths had ringside seats to the Sen. John McCain presidential campaign rally outside Defiance Community Auditorium this morning.

All of Defiance City Schools students had the opportunity to participate in the rally with thousands of other supporters, though their parents had the option of saying no. On Tuesday, the students were given letters to take home giving parents the choice of attending or not attending the rally.

"Putting party affiliation aside," said superintendent Mike Struble in the letter, "I believe that this is a once in a lifetime educational opportunity for our students to see a presidential candidate in person. It is a unique occasion to see the U.S. political process as it actually unfolds. I am happy that the national spotlight is on Defiance, Ohio, for however briefly.

"Defiance has wanted national candidates to visit the city for many years," the letter continued. "I am honored that our school district has been chosen to host this event in the final week of an intensely contested national race."

The district's students were bused in for the rally. An area on the south lawn was dedicated to the district's K-6 students so they would be separated from others. High school students were allowed to mingle throughout the site.

The Varsity Blues sang "God Bless America" and the Defiance High School band performed the national anthem. Also invited to perform prior to the 10 a.m. rally were high school bands from Paulding, Bryan and Fairview.

"It's an honor for our school to be chosen," said Struble. "It's a positive thing for the town and a positive thing for the school."

The school administrator noted prior to the event that it was going to be a hectic time and somewhat inconvenient, but it was worth the trouble because it was "a lesson in U.S. government that cannot be easily duplicated."

Hans Zipfel, government teacher at Defiance High School, prefaced the rally with prompts of what the students were to look for while there. "That included Secret Service agents, security measures, crowd reaction to the speakers and their comments, participant's reaction to the crowded environment itself, participant's reaction to the security measures taken, etc.," said Zipfel.

"Also, we informed them of what potentially transpires in other less democratic countries where people amass politically," he explained. "Assemblies such as the one the students were a part of would be dispersed with rocks, gas, clubs, or strafed bullets if it was antithetical to the powers-that-be. We wanted to express how truly blessed we are to live in this country with the freedoms our predecessors provided and that we strive to maintain. We especially focused on the First Amendment's free speech clause and the right to peaceably assemble. We then will discuss all these various components of the event when we reconvene on Friday."

What did Zipfel hope the students learned from this experience?

"Regardless of the students' political preferences," he said, "we hope that they learned through witness, just how involved, exhaustive and zealous the political process can be. We want them to know just what a serious endeavor the stewardship of our active democracy is. We also wanted them to be made aware that democracy must be maintained through their constant exposure to pertinent knowledge and its beneficiaries' active participation, through not only the ballot box, but through association and activism as well."

Though many Defiance kindergarten youngsters had a front row view,

Central Local superintendent Dave Bagley reported that nearly 600 Fairview students were brought in on 12 buses to attend the rally as well.

The decision was made to include all students in grades 6-12, the seniors in particular, because they were of voting age, said Bagley.

"We're not endorsing any candidate," said Bagley. "This is a real learning tool for students. They could visibly see what goes on with a campaign. It was an ideal time to show them what's going on at one of these events."

Jim Roach, superintendent of Northeastern Local Schools, accompanied approximately 100 students, mostly seniors, to the political rally.

By bringing forward the political event live, said Roach, "it creates a defining time for the kids. They will always remember it."

A staff member was also on hand to film the rally, take it back to school and create a PowerPoint presentation for the rest of the staff and students.