Sun Youth Forum puts teen perspective in focus

A lively conversation took place in a high school classroom this week on the Clark County School District’s new policy requiring students to put their cellphones in signal-blocking pouches.

The students who gathered to talk about it were participating in the Las Vegas Sun Youth Forum, so they had plenty to say.

Palo Verde High School senior Grey Anderson suggested that fiddling with phones in class is a symptom of a disease, of sorts.

“I think it speaks to a bigger problem within the district in terms of the student engagement,” she said. “If students aren’t engaged in their classes, if they feel like the curriculum isn’t personalized enough for them, like they don’t feel like school has any intrinsic value, they’re going to be on their phones more.”

Focusing on the teen perspective — on topics ranging from gun control, environmental policy and the competence of the Secret Service to online misinformation, cafeteria food and how phones should be regulated on campus — is what the Sun Youth Forum is all about.

About 600 high school juniors and seniors gathered Monday at Cimarron-Memorial High School for the annual meeting of the minds, a Las Vegas tradition for more than 60 years.

Students broke into small groups for active listening and respectful debate, steered by adult moderators but centering the student participants.

Desert Oasis High School history teacher Eric Dyer chaperoned 26 students from his southwest valley school for the event, which took place on a day when classes were canceled districtwide for staff development. He’s now attended the youth forum for three years as a teacher — and one as a Spring Valley High School student in 2007.

Although so many of the subjects directly affect students, young people don’t usually get to give their input, he said.

“It’s a conversation that adults have,” he said.

One of his students, senior Ryan Kirsch, said there was a negative misperception of Las Vegas’ youths. But more students are good than not, she said.

“I feel our voices matter” at the Sun Youth Forum, said Kirsch, who also participated last year. “I feel seen and heard here.”

In the room where they dissected cellphone use, several students agreed that the pouches were a waste of money and a misdirection of priorities.

Ethan Santos, a junior at Desert Oasis, said teachers’ procedures varied. Some have students put their pouches in a basket at their shared tables. Others want them placed in hanging pocket charts, like the ones used to store calculators. Some teachers don’t care, he said. And students who want to skirt the rules will, by hiding their phones or saying they don’t have one or putting them under the pouch instead of inside.

Roman Aftab, a senior at Del Sol High School, said sometimes students called each other in class.

But they also vape in class, she said.

“Obviously, we shouldn’t really be on our phones. But for me, at my school, a bigger problem is smoking. I’ve had smoke blown directly into my face mid-class. There are people who will pass (vapes) behind each other’s backs and just smoke in class. You can smell that, and the teacher doesn’t care,” she said. “A phone is an addiction, but so is smoking, and I feel like that’s something that they should focus on more.”

Anderson said the pouches were like “a Band-Aid over a gouging wound.”

“The moment you are disengaged, school is just another place for you to live your life with some kind of annoying rules,” she said. “And I feel like that has kind of contributed to the lack of attention.”

But as seen around the Sun Youth Forum, plenty of students are engaged.

The annual event was established in 1956 by Las Vegas Sun founder and publisher Hank Greenspun, who had a simple notion that adults should listen to the thoughts and opinions of youths — an elementary concept, yet given the times, a revolutionary idea.

Attendees are eligible for scholarships — the Sun and partners handed out $15,000 worth of scholarships this year — plus opportunities to write op-eds for the Sun and televised and radio roundtables for top participants.

Las Vegas Sun Youth Forum scholarship winners

Abigail Negate, Spring Valley (Las Vegas Sun and Erica Mosca $2,000)

William Deng, Southwest CTA (Las Vegas Sun $1,000)

Kingston Smith, Western (Las Vegas Sun $1,000)

Jade Hawkins, Sierra Vista (Las Vegas Sun $1,000)

Maliq Wyatt, Sierra Vista (UNLV $1,000)

Stephanie Dominguez, Western (UNLV $1,000)

Mia Leszczynski, Southwest CTA (UNLV $1,000)

Leila Pasion, Arbor View (UNR $1,000)

Chloe Pollack, Del Sol (UNR $1,000)

Haris Gibirila, Southwest CTA (Shelley Berkley $1,000)

Brandon Villa, Del Sol  (Arcata/Tim Wong $1,000)

Alberto Riestra, Western (Nevada State Bank $1,000)

Andrew Carter, Mojave (Patrick Duffy & Luis Velazquez $1,000)

Zoey Coffman, Chaparral (Patrick Duffy & Luis Velazquez $1,000)

Room representatives

Grey Anderson, Palo Verde

Spencer Arteaga, Mojave

Le’Lah Bell, Sierra Vista

Kevin Cisneros, Palo Verde

Diego Flores, Foothill

Kailey Garay, Arbor View

Olivia Gnakadja, Advanced Technologies Academy

William Halpin, Advanced Technologies Academy

Benjamin Hickman, Green Valley

Armand Iorgulescu, Advanced Technologies Academy

Jordyn Ohta, Spring Valley

Thalia Olivares, Las Vegas Academy 

Emma O’Neal, Northwest CTA

Victor Pedzik, Southwest CTA

Rachel Pope, Northwest CTA

Aleksey Prodan, Rancho

Logan Price, Foothill

Christian Rebolledo, Sierra Vista

Julian Salvador-Avila, Spring Valley

Jacob Sarmiento, Rancho

Camryn Scanson, Advanced Technologies Academy

Nolawi Shewangzaw, Advanced Technologies Academy

Meron Tesfai, Advanced Technologies Academy

Adrian Trejo, Canyon Springs

Angelina Vargas, Veterans Tribute CTA

Julia West, Green Valley

Lake Wilson, Palo Verde

[email protected] / 702-990-8949 / @HillaryLVSun