Student-Moderated Forum Challenges West Bloomfield School Board Candidates

Most high school students won't be old enough to go the polls Nov. 8 to vote on West Bloomfield's Board of Education seats. On Tuesday, however, a group of students influenced the election in their own way.

A student-moderated forum in the media center of brought together all six candidates to address issues which students felt were under-represented at hosted by the Oakland County League of Women Voters. Seven moderators took turns asking questions and keeping time. Several others worked hard in the weeks prior to Tuesday to come up with the nine questions asked.

"I learned so much from this experience and I feel so honored to be able to do this. It was really interesting to do public speaking," said Chloe Pan, a sophomore who worked as moderator. "We had a really nice turnout tonight ... it was nice to see it go off really smoothly."

Attendance included students from WBHS' Law Club, Political Leadership class, and AP U.S. Government and Politics students. The students initially approached administrators with their request before being approved and getting to work two weeks ago.

Moderators agreed that the issues raised at the forum would be beneficial to the entirety of the election.

"I think it gives a lot of good insight to parents and other teachers that were here. We focused on a lot of student issues that they might have otherwise not looked at," said Claire Forhan, a senior student moderator. "I'm actually going to be a teacher when I grow up, so hearing their points of view on school issues is really insightful. These are issues I may face when I'm a teacher."

WBHS Principal Tom Shelton said Monday that he was "thrilled" to be approached by students and that such interest had never come up in school board elections during his tenure.

"It's always wonderful to see kids who are motivated to do the right thing," said Shelton. "I think it's the genesis of the whole event ... participating in the community and caring about it. It's very refreshing to me to see students involved at this level."

To read about the issues candidates faced from students, .

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