SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — The riots at the capitol, unlike anything we have seen in modern American history, shook our nation.
Students at Nixa High School said they are absolutely shocked at the events that happened at the capitol, and it motivates them to participate in the voting process when they’re old enough, so their voices get heard.
“It was really upsetting to see,” said Grayson Corliss, a tenth grader at Nixa High School, “I think it’s important to like voice your opinions and vote to make sure your representation is there.”
Greg Walker, a history teacher at Nixa High School, said it’s important for high schoolers to learn about these events as they are living through history.
“The impact on them now is that they have to be paying attention to what’s going on. They can’t just be floating along,” said Walker.
That’s exactly what Corliss learned through the events at the capitol.
“You should get all the facts and information that you know so that you can be better prepared for how you want to view situations,” said Corliss. “Not normalizing it. Not having this be something that we should see as normal or acceptable.”
Walker hopes kids who saw the Capitol breach will learn from it.
“What I want the kids to learn is that, you have a personal opinion, political opinion, you can speak those opinions, but when you start to infringe on rights and destroy property, you then start to lose those rights,” Walker said, “I would hope that they would see living through this event, understanding the division has been created in our country, they would not want to see that happen ever again.”
One high schooler said she hopes to do something to prevent another breach in the future.
“It was honestly kind of scary,” said Piper Gardner, a twelfth grader at Kickapoo High School, “it definitely has pushed me to want to be more active in politics when I get older. Because I just want to prevent something like this from happening ever again.”
Over at Kickapoo High School, a history teacher stresses the importance of teaching current events in history classes because this is and will be a historical event.
“Current events are history to our children and our grandchildren. More of my kids in my class understand that while they think that it’s just the present moment, it’s history,” said Loren Broaddus, a history teacher at Kickapoo High School.
A student at Kickapoo said the event was a reminder for him
“All these people lost their heads and did something that history will probably look back on and say was very wrong,” said Ryan Harris, another twelfth grader at Kickapoo High School. “So just kind of, it’s kind of like a warning to myself that I need to watch how polarizing or radical people get with politics and trying to keep a level head because we are all just people.”
