Portsmouth students to witness democracy in action in D.C.

Nine students to see inauguration, learn political process under Close Up program

Jim McGaw
Posted 12/8/16

PORTSMOUTH — After booking their trip to Washington, D.C. for the Presidential Inauguration next month, Sophia Domingoes and Lily Van Petten were all revved up to witness an unprecedented …

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Portsmouth students to witness democracy in action in D.C.

Nine students to see inauguration, learn political process under Close Up program

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — After booking their trip to Washington, D.C. for the Presidential Inauguration next month, Sophia Domingoes and Lily Van Petten were all revved up to witness an unprecedented moment in U.S. history: the first woman being sworn in as president.

We all know what happened on Nov. 8, however. It will be Donald Trump taking the oath of office Jan. 20 on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol, not Hillary Clinton.

But the two Portsmouth High School seniors, among nine students participating in the nationwide Close Up program under the escort of social studies teacher Joe Cassady, didn’t rip up their reservations. They’’ll still be witnessing history in the making, they said.

“I was pretty disappointed, to be honest,” said Lily. “I was really excited to be able to witness the first female president, obviously. The trip was already paid for before the election, but I don’t feel it’s really a loss because it’s such an experience. It’ll be so amazing to go either way.”

Sophia also would like to have seen Mrs. Clinton take the oath Jan. 20, but the election outcome hasn’t diminished her enthusiasm for the trip. 

“I was also excited to see the first woman president be elected, and hopefully we will one day. Either way, it would be a historic event to attend, so it’s a good opportunity despite who won,” she said.

As for Mr. Cassady, it doesn’t matter who’s running the country.

“For these guys I remain apolitical,” he said. “We go down with the same intention every year — to see how government works, to meet our delegates. I don’t teach from a soapbox or a pulpit. I want to give both sides of any issues — or 10 sides — if I can in an effort to make sure these guys are making fundamentally educated choices when it comes to political decisions.”

Close Up is an annual, nonpartisan program which offers high school students an interactive, in-depth look at the democratic process. Over the past two decades, Mr. Cassady has taken a total of nearly 200 teenagers — 23 one year alone — to D.C. to debate on Congressional issues, discuss politics with other students from around the country, meet with their representatives in Congress, see monuments and historic sites and, in this case, bear witness to a presidential inauguration.

A son of a Marine, Mr. Cassady grew up outside D.C. but moved to Rhode Island when he was a high school sophomore. After graduating from Rogers High School, he attended college back down in Virginia and landed a job teaching history at PHS in 1998. 

Close Up, he said, “was one of the programs that Ray Masse, who was the department head at the time, put in front of me and said, ‘You should do this.’”

He realized how much he loved D.C. when he returned with PHS students as part of Close Up.

“The program itself looks at the legislative branch primarily — how does government work inside the Beltway? These guys learn about it in U.S. history and to some extant they know how a bill becomes a law and all those other wonderful things we get from ‘Schoolhouse Rock.’ But for them to have a week to be down with me and Close Up and be immersed in it, they get a true understanding that these are real individuals that are doing these things.”

Many of the people they’ll meet on Capitol Hill, he points out, aren’t much older than his students. “And they’re the movers and shakers,” Mr. Cassady said. “You’ve got a 22-year-old who’s doing a briefing for a senator. It’s the first time you get to see and think, ‘I can be part of this process.’”

Special week

This will be the second inaugural event for Sophia; she attended President Obama’s second swearing-in as part of a class field trip in 2013.

“Since I’ve already been to an inauguration, I’m looking forward to go with a more mature mindset and actually be aware of what’s going on,” she said.

This will be the first trip to D.C. for Lily, who as a sophomore interned at the Rhode Island State House in the office of former Sen. Christopher Ottiano. “I think no matter what happens on that day, it’s going to be such a historical day that I’ll be excited just to witness it and everything that happens,” she said.

But there’s a lot more going on than just a president being sworn in. The group will meet with other students from all around the country — Ohio, North Dakota, California, Alaska, etc. — as part of a “Mock Congress” in which they’ll take positions on different legislative items.

“Then they’ll get together as a Congress and try to push these things through as to what becomes a law and what doesn’t. And that’s where you start to see all those different personalities and value systems coming to terms,” said Mr. Cassady.

Lily said she’s looking forward to meeting with other students beyond the Northeast. “I’m really excited to get their perspective on what they 

thought about the election and how they learn about politics,” she said.

Meetings with representatives

Wednesday, Jan. 18, is “Capitol Hill Day,” when students will meet with Rhode Island’s Congressional representatives: U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and U.S. Rep. David Cicilline.

“Reed, Whitehouse and Cicilline are all different,” said Mr. Cassady. “If you want to get Whitehouse going, ask him about global warming. If you want to get Reed going, ask him about the military and defense.”

Lily said one question she plans on asking the Congressmen is how the new president-elect impacts them, as well as their positions.

Besides visits to many historic sites and monuments around D.C., Mr. Cassady, who’s been doing this for a while, plans to make time for a few special stops that are not part of the official schedule, such as a visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Pentagon. 

“I try to use my connections to get them to see things they couldn’t easily do if they did a tour on their own,” he said. “I’ll make sure they see the Folger Theatre on Capital Hill because most people don’t know it’s there. It’s a great Shakespearean history museum. I’m going to make them go into the Botanic Garden, because they can say they were in a rainforest in D.C. in January.”

‘First Amendment in action’

The day after the main event — students will even enjoy their own Inaugural Ball that Mr. Cassady will “avoid like the plague” — they’ll also be able to observe the Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21.

“I will probably have them up on Capitol Hill, because if any place is secure, it’s going to be up there,” Mr. Cassady said. “I worry about the peripheries of any of these events, because that’s where the protesting starts. We’ll keep a nice safe berth around it, but close enough to be observers.”

The Close Up program, he noted, “more than anything else, is about helping them to understand citizenship,” and observing the protest is part of that.

“I want these guys to see it as I’m found of saying, ‘This is the First Amendment in action.’”

Portsmouth High School, Election 2016, Close Up

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