Students react to the election

Students share their opinions about this year’s presidential election.

This year’s election has everyone running in circles. Regardless of which candidate you were rooting for, it was a tight race. Staten Island was the only borough in New York  in favor of the Republican party this year. From the Island alone, Clinton received 67,561 votes, and Trump received 95,612. Bernie Sanders was also popular on the North Shore. There are still signs out for him in the yards of many houses in St. George and Stapleton, which makes sense because it was mainly the northern tip of the island that voted Democrat.

Students around Curtis seem to have lots of things to say when it comes to Trump being our new president. Isabel Gonzalez of the IB Junior class isn’t too happy with the results, stating “I get angry when Trump says Mexicans are rapists. My dad came here to work, and that’s all. They say ‘Mexicans are taking our jobs’ but these are the jobs that they don’t want to take.” She feels that the election affects her (even as someone not able to vote) because of discrimination against her, her family, and her people.  At Curtis, it’s hard to find Trump supporters willing to voice their opinion. John Fanizzi, an IB senior was a Trump supporter. “I don’t agree with everything he stands for, but I preferred him over Hillary.  It was hard to voice my opinion at Curtis because of the one side ideology, I even heard that some teachers were pushing their opinions in class”, said John Fanizzi.

The week of the election was only slightly different than normal. November 9th, the day after the election, . Mr. Jaenicke made special announcements in the morning, explaining that each and every student contributes to the diversity of Curtis High School. He spoke for nearly 2 minutes about the different opinions and ideas that exist, and the importance of diversity and respect in the student/teacher population. It was an attempt to be proactive with preventing the possible discrimination or attacks regarding personal views from the results of the election. Minor acts of racism were apparent in the halls such as kids being told they were going to be deported, but it died out within the first few days.

Teachers dealt with the elections in  several ways, whether that being voicing their own opinions to their classes or flat-out ignoring it, sticking to curriculum and continuing to teach.  The most exciting part of the election for Ms. Pillarella was the conversations in the feminist club, with young women expressing their opinions through both their words and their eyes.