17th Norfolk State Representative Candidates to Face Tough Audience of Junior High Students-October 22, 1974

Ninth Graders Prepare to Quiz Local Hopefuls in Political Class Project

(Editor’s note: This is now the 12th Norfolk District – consisting of the town of Norwood, and Precincts 1, 2, 6, 7, and 8A, of the town of Walpole, both in the county of Norfolk.

Candidates vying for Norwood’s 17th Norfolk state representative seat are set to face a rigorous and unconventional audience this Friday when they address approximately 180 ninth-grade students from Junior High School North.

Conceived earlier in the year by American government teacher Stephen M. Schinnick, the class project immerses 13- and 14-year-olds directly into the political season. Rather than just studying elections from a distance, the students have been actively monitoring campaigns, clipping campaign literature, compiling biographical scrapbooks, and analyzing candidates’ stances on local issues. Approximately 20 students even opted to volunteer directly for campaign operations.

While the project originally allowed students to choose any office seeker from governor down, Mr. Shinnick noted that attention naturally gravitated toward the local representative candidates. Their high visibility and youthful demographics—including Republican David Boch (age 20), Democrat Gregory Sullivan (age 22), and Independents Jay Dixon (age 26) and Brian O’Malley (age 29)—have made the local hopefuls particularly relatable to the teenagers.

Student Concerns and Local Grievances

When the candidates step up to the podium, they are expected to encounter questions far different from those posed at standard adult campaign stops. Mr. Shinnick explained that the ninth graders feel “very oppressed” by certain local policies affecting their daily lives.

A prime example is the recently reopened Norwood Cinema, where teen patrons have expressed widespread frustration that they are forced to pay adult admission prices while being barred from viewing adult-rated films. Ultimately, as part of the assignment leading up to election day, the students are required to analyze their chosen candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, evaluate press coverage, and determine whether the candidate deserves their hypothetical vote.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger