Most Nc, Sp Students Back Bill Clinton

If students mirror their parents’ politics, Bill Clinton has Spokane’s North Side precincts wrapped up.

North Central and Shadle Park High teachers giving students election-year lessons found more support for the incumbent.

Almost 70 percent of Shadle’s electoral college went to Clinton, versus 24 percent for Bob Dole. Classes were divided into states. Clinton took Kansas, Dole won Washington.

North Central hasn’t polled its students, but teacher Wendy Watson said Clinton is a clear favorite among the predominantly liberal students. Students will vote Nov. 4.

Rogers High voted Wednesday, but results were unavailable.

But the reasons for votes differ sharply at each school, according to teachers leading the voter-information lessons.

“It would seem issues had very little to do with selection,” said Bob Isitt, a Shadle social studies teacher. “It wasn’t so much a vote for Clinton as against Dole.”

On social issues, Isitt’s students tended to be conservative. Only 10 of his 60 students supported Gary Locke over Ellen Craswell. Most fell to the right on abortion, welfare and taxes.

“This is only one guy’s perspective, but since the ‘80s, kids have been more conservative,” said Isitt, a 24-year teacher.

“The conservative people were more outspoken,” said Shadle senior Sam Glanzer, who voted for Dole.

Most North Central students are proudly liberal, says Watson. “They have that save-the-world attitude, save the trees, save all the people, free (health) care. Then you start talking about the economics of it…”

Like Shadle, most NC students supported gay rights.

And like Shadle , many NC many students had poorly formulated political beliefs, teachers say. But in the last month, they’ve improved.

“Our goal since beginning of the year is to make our students intelligent, knowledgable voters, knowing what the issues are instead of the scuttlebutt on TV,” said Watson.

Still, students say impressions of candidates - Clinton’s vigor, Dole’s age - are strong enough to influence votes.

“That’s very important to us,” said NC senior Nate Fewel. “We don’t know enough about life yet to weigh issues on their own.”

Most staff wove presidential campaign issues into their regular lessons. Math teachers talk polling statistics. Watson, a Spanish teacher, talked immigration.

“I don’t know how many kids are saying, ‘Jeez, “Crossfire” yesterday was great,”’ said Watson.

Both teachers say they were careful to balance personal politics with professional responsibility. Isitt is an unabashed Dole supporter, but says he usually takes the minority position on issues to provoke debate.

The Shadle social studies staff is at least Republican, says Isitt. “It wasn’t a bunch of liberal teachers pushing for Clinton,” he said.

Watson is a “die-hard Republican,” but presented both sides fairly. “I don’t want to persuade anyone,” she said.

But the lessons may have had little impact on apathy, which usually keeps half the voting public from polls.

“Students don’t care that much about politics,” said Glanzer, Shadle’s student body president. “They think it’s a big show.”

, DataTimes