Politics. Why should teenagers care? Teens already have enough to worry about: thinking about how they’re going to survive the phone ban, what they’ll do after high school, or who they’re going to hang out with this weekend.
The fact is, politics affects everyone. Understanding these politics is no longer optional to understanding the world around them.
“I absolutely think it’s important that students are aware of how their government works and how leadership at every level impacts them, whether that’s political or not,” said Stacey Lindsey, who teaches U.S. Government. “It’s important for them to know about their government and how the government impacts their daily lives.”
ICE
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been enforcing an immigration crackdown under President Donald Trump. After ICE agents killed both Renee Good and Alex Pretti, DHS students walked out in protest of ICE in January. Today, ICE has set up shop in Wichita on a smaller scale. Under the Supreme Court ruling Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, ICE is allowed to detain anyone who looks like an immigrant without it being racial profiling.
Junior Frida Munoz: “I think that ICE is taking things way too far than what they need to go as. I understand that they’re trying to stop people from entering the country, but it’s getting out of hand by taking kids whose parents are immigrants. They’re just taking basic human rights.”
Sophomore Asher Turner: “I think the concept of immigration enforcement is good, but the officers have gone too far and have crossed a boundary. We still need that boundary to ensure that America is safe, but there needs to be more regulations for the officers.”
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) affects everyone daily, from adults using it for their jobs, to students using it in school in an attempt for better grades. The government wants to use AI in politics and defense, and soon it will impact everyone on a greater scale. Furthermore, the usage of water from massive data centers has taken a toll on the environment, threatening water supplies for people worldwide.
Junior Matthew Gilley: “I would say AI is one of humanity’s biggest achievements, but if you are going to ask me about generative AI, I would say it’s a scourge on the art community. I think AI should be used to assist in very technical jobs like programming, manual labor, and dangerous labor, but AI should be far removed from the art community.”
Sophomore Abe Herring: “I think AI is definitely good in the fact that we have found new technologies and humans have found a way to expand. I do see how it’s dangerous and bad for the art culture, which is just as important to humans. I wouldn’t talk too badly about it myself, considering how much I use it.”
Gay marriage
The Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of keeping gay marriage legal. This right being taken away could affect students’ plans for their future or their parents’ marriage.
Sophomore Ellie Swindle: “I think that gay marriage doesn’t negatively affect any students, but I think the idea of that right being taken away could negatively impact students. It gives students a negative view of their decision-making and their choice of who they get to love.”
Junior Joshua Guzman: “I don’t believe that gay marriage should be a thing, but I don’t see a problem with gay people getting married. I don’t think it should be a legal thing on a legal document, just because I don’t think it’s needed. It was never there in the first place, and I don’t think that the world benefited from it.”
Freshman Bryson Carroll: “I don’t think that gay marriage affects students at the school. It might, but I just don’t know for sure.”
Abortion
Abortion is currently banned in 13 states, and there are restrictions in 28 others. These laws can affect pregnant women and girls, including high school students, especially those facing medical complications during pregnancy.
Understanding these laws is important because they directly impact the choices and health care options available to young people.
According to American SPCC, 3 in 10 teen American girls get pregnant before they are of legal age.
This means that nearly 750,000 girls every year are getting pregnant before they are 18.
Many women and girls don’t think these types of rules affect them–until they do.
According to Ms. Magazine’s article “Rest in Power: A Running List of the Preventable Deaths Caused by Abortion Bans,”
In Kansas, it is legal to get an abortion up to 22 weeks.
Prices
Rising costs should concern teens. Higher prices and taxes are raising the cost of snacks, school supplies, and gas, making trips to class, practice, and part-time jobs more expensive.
When gas spikes, teens cut shifts and activities. Driving costs extend beyond the car’s price, with insurance for teenage drivers, repairs, and registration pushing totals higher.
This leaves many teens to question if they will even be able to buy their own car.
Although gas and car prices aren’t the only things that have been rising, housing costs have as well.
With the current real estate prices, owning a house is in the far future for younger generations, and for some, it’s out of the question.
Transgender people
There are 10 trans college athletes — out of 500,000 college athletes –, but states such as Kansas banned them in kindergarten through college.
Sophomore Gunner Jones: “I think that male-born athletes have an unfair advantage in female athletics. Just because you identify as a certain gender doesn’t mean that you deserve a natural and unfair advantage over natural women who have worked hard their entire lives. Women who work as hard as they want will never be able to compete with a natural man who plays the same sport.”
On Thursday, February 26th, Kansas announced that it was invalidating the license of transgender individuals who switched their gender on their driver’s license to what they identify as.
In late February, Republican lawmakers successfully overrode Governor Kelly’s veto of the bathroom bill, which bans transgender people from using public bathrooms according to their gender identity.
Sophomore Codie Whitener: “It’s a hard position to be in because they are going up against something that they can’t control naturally. So, if they don’t have the resources to be on hormones or chemically change themselves, they have a natural disadvantage.
Health Insurance
In 2019, the fine for not being insured went down to $0, so there is no federal fine, but the requirement is still technically on the books.
Freshman Maddox Coslett: “I think it’s a good and a bad thing because with health insurance, it could help you from a big hospital bill, but not having it could cost so much more, so I think it depends on whether people are willing to take that risk.”
Health insurance is $1100-$2,000 a month on average for family plans, according to bls.gov. For military families, they have something called tricare and that is provided for all branches in the Army.
Private employers roughly help pay 59%-80% of the employees’ health insurance, according to thatch.com