Students get a taste of politics

Congressman Adam Schiff visits Hollywood High

Representative Adam Schiff (D-28th District) discussed such topics as the functions of Congress and heated issues that are being debated in Congress with students from SAS teacher Neil Fitzpatrick’s and NMA/CAA teacher David Payne’s social studies classes last month.

Last August, Fitzpatrick met with an assistant of Adam Schiff at a block party in Los Feliz. There, Fitzpatrick was asked if he would like to meet his congressman. They negotiated and set a date to when Schiff would meet with Fitzpatrick’s class.

During the class visit, Schiff also discussed his roles in Congress, such as the committees he is involved with.

Schiff first introduced the structure and the operations of the two houses of Congress, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.

Topics he discussed ranged from the economic issues of the U.S., like the fiscal cliff and how it can raise taxes, to the internal conflicts of Congress.

“We are trying to address these problems and not pass them to the next generation,” Schiff said.
Schiff shared his ideas on the economy. One of his goals for his term as representative is to prevent another recession like the one we faced in 2008. “If we go into another recession, we will shut off jobs again,” Schiff said.

He also shared his ideas on how to grow the economy. First, Schiff wishes to bring people back to work in the construction industry. Second, he wants to bring back manufacturing by designing better products.

After Schiff finished discussing his topics, he persuaded his audience to ask several questions for him to answer. Questions from women in Congress, to how the economy will affect the senior class after graduation.

One question concerned gun control. Schiff shared his opinions on gun control, and that several steps should be made to increase the safety of the people, like reintroducing the assault rifle ban. He commented how people don’t need assault rifles to hunt and how guns were flowing into Mexican drug cartels. Another step is closing the gun show loophole, which allowed people to purchase guns without a background check.

Fitzpatrick was delighted to have the congressman visit his class. He said he wanted his students to “get a sense of a real face of a politician.”

Fitzpatrick also said he hopes that it will get his students to vote in future elections.

“It’s nice how the congressman came to our school to speak, how he gave some of his time for us,” SAS senior Arnold Ahn said. “It shows how he is dedicated to his role as congressman.”

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