Shadow Ridge High students set example for the youth vote

About 70 students from a civics class at Shadow Ridge High sat in the school gym to hear from Amy Koo, the political director of One Asian Pacific Islander Americans Nevada.

With a graphic on the screen behind her, Koo told the students, many of whom will be voting for the first time in November, about Gen Z’s relatively low turnout rate. Of the more than 200,000 eligible Gen Z voters in Nevada, she said, 24.5% voted in 2022.

“People who are elected, they’re not going to talk to us, right? Because if 25% of us are voting, why do they need to talk to us?” Koo said before her team gave each student a voter registration form. “But if this number was 60% ... then that means every person who wants to be elected in Nevada, they know, ‘We have to talk to young people.’”

While Koo will be going around to a handful of schools in Las Vegas leading up to the November election to lead voter registration events, Shadow Ridge has made a name for itself when it comes to registering its seniors to vote.

Matthew Nighswonger, a Shadow Ridge social studies teacher and football coach, has coordinated voter registration drives for the school’s students for nine years. For seven of them, the school registered at least 85% of eligible students.

“It might just be a minor way, but I’m trying to contribute to our country, our government, our democracy,” Nighswonger said. “Even if it’s just a small task of getting kids registered to vote over … nine years — I mean, that’s several thousand young adults.”

Hitting that 85% threshold has earned the school a growing collection of Helen J. Stewart Awards, which are given out by the Nevada secretary of state’s office. Since the 2017-18 school year, only four other high school schools have won the award. Besides Shadow Ridge, none have won it more than twice.

Shadow Ridge seniors Layla Williams, Reggie Pitts and Toby Nelson both said they were excited to finally get a say in who represents them in Congress and the White House.

“I hope that this opportunity just gives a lot of other students of mine ... the opportunity to learn more about the election,” Williams said. “They have the right, they have the freedom, so why not use it?”

Nelson added that his classmates had mixed feelings about the election. While some share their excitement, he said others are either worried about its outcome or don’t want to register at all.

Nighswonger said adults sometimes lose focus on the younger generation, making excuses based on their education or lack of experience in life. Unfortunately, he said, politicians sometimes do the same.

“Very rarely do we ask these kids, ‘What do you need? What will help you be a productive member of our society?’” Nighswonger said. “We don’t ask these kids that very often, if at all.”

This year, Sabrina Hagan-Finks, a language access liaison with the secretary of state’s office, attended the Shadow Ridge voter drive Tuesday. Manning a table with keychains and Frisbees, she continuously asked students the same question before giving them their merch: What did you learn today?

Nevadans can register to vote by mail until Oct. 8. People can also register in person during early voting from Oct. 19 to Nov. 1, while online registration continues until Election Day on Nov. 5. Nevada also allows same-day in-person registration.

“With the current political climate, it’s always nice to see young people encouraged by registering to vote,” said Koo, who attended on behalf of the Asian Community Development Council. “A lot of our staff have been doing this for a couple of years now, so it’s always great to see the teachers again (and) see how excited they are to get their students to register.”

[email protected] / 702-990-8923 / @Kyle_Chouinard