PEABODY — City students were back in the halls of government this week, ending a two-year Student Government Day hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Today was excellent,” Peabody Veterans Memorial High School Principal Steven Magno said in describing Thursday’s up-close-and-personal view of public service.
Student Government Day pairs the city’s high-school students with the municipal department heads and elected officials, who serve in a variety of roles.
“It’s important to build relationships and learn about our city,” said Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt, whose student counterpart was Benjamin McKiernan. “It’s an opportunity for our high-school students to learn a little bit more about the different jobs and functions we do in a community.”
Bettencourt said Veterans Memorial High School has historically been a pipeline to city jobs.
Students were invited to learn about a variety of important city roles for the day. During their visit to the Peabody Police Department, Chief Thomas M. Griffin showed the students around the station.
“These guys can investigate any kind of crime,” said Griffin, when leading the students to the Criminal Investigation Division.
The students also got a chance to enter the training room and see how the police officers hone their shooting skills. The kids were asked to wear protective glasses and headphones during this portion of the visit.
The police chief also gave a short talk to the students at the roll-call room, where he provided advice to those who wanted to one day join the force. He said the approach was to attend college first, because police officers also need to know about psychology and different cultures. Griffin’s student counterpart was Brendan Smith.
For example, some people from Brazil in the Peabody community were instructed in their native country to get out of the car promptly, when they were pulled over. Otherwise the police officers in Brazil might consider them a threat, said Griffin, while in the U.S. the instruction was just the opposite.
At age 19, prospective police officers are able to take the civil-service exam and join the department if they meet the required standards, Griffin said.
The students also visited the Torigian Senior Center and Wiggin Auditorium in City Hall where they conducted School Committee and City Council meetings along with their adult counterparts.
Better foreign-language education became one the central topics for the School Committee meeting led by student Superintendent of Schools Jenelle Wronkowski, standing in for Dr. Josh Vadala.
The student representatives on the council insisted that combining the students of different levels in one class had a negative effect on their foreign-language proficiency.
They also wished to expand the list of languages available at school and for better teaching techniques that would allow them to practice the spoken language in their classes instead of focusing on learning the grammar.
Potholes became the liveliest topic of conversation during the council meeting. Some student comments were followed by cheers and applause, validating the audience’s feeling that the students hit on one of the most acute problems in the community.
Some of the students in the student government, like Theola O’Furie, who shadowed the human resources director, and Elizabeth Seredkina, who shadowed the fire inspector, said they learned a lot about how city government works during Thursday’s event.
“I shadowed the human resources director, and I learned that they take on a lot of responsibility,” said O’Furie.
Student Elizabeth Seredkina said she learned how different people in different communities work together to make one functioning city. Victoria Shaw, who shadowed Executive Director of the Council on Aging Carol Wynn, said the experience showed her how much of the inner work was done in the specific departments within the government.
