Cleveland High School students joined approximately 350 of their high school peers in Murfreesboro on March 6 to express their views on public education in Tennessee at the Tennessee School Boards Association Student Congress on Policies in Education. The event took place on the Middle Tennessee State University campus.
Attending were: Zach Bianucci, Anjali Patel, Om Patel and Mary Grant Woodruff. Director of Schools Dr. Russell Dyer served as a volunteer leader for the conference as well.
Now in its 36th year, SCOPE is designed to give students a voice where public education issues are concerned and to involve young people in finding solutions to the topics that are discussed.
Attendees participated in mock school board sessions, where they assumed the roles of school board members, school officials, parents, students and concerned citizens. The sessions were led by actual school board members, superintendents and educational leaders from across the state.
Students then chose speakers to represent each of their 16 small groups, who went on to take part in full-scale debates on current education issues. This year’s four debate topics and results from the poll were:
1. Student information shall be shared without parent permission. (Agree: 53%, Disagree: 47%)
2. Corporal punishment shall be banned from all schools. (Agree: 47%, Disagree: 53%)
3. All students shall pass a civics exam to graduate (Agree: 69%, Disagree: 31%)
4. Cyberbullying shall be a zero-tolerance offense. (Agree: 17%, Disagree: 83%)