Finding Time to Do It All : Teen-Ager’s Successes Span Statehouse to Soccer Field

Tovi Scruggs has experienced the rigors of the campaign trail, ridden the roller coaster of defeat and victory, and grappled with the perplexing issues that keep politicians up at night.

That would be demanding enough, even if she didn’t have to squeeze in cheerleading practice and math homework.

Her rigorous schedule notwithstanding, earlier this year, the indefatigable Scruggs, 17, became lieutenant governor at California Girls State, the annual civic forum in Sacramento that sets up a mock government. She was then selected by the widest margin in the program’s 43-year history to go on to Girls Nation in Washington.

Although Scruggs attributes her victories to booming speeches, hand-drawn campaign signs and hours spent mingling with the voters, those who know her say self-motivation is the key. It is that same intense desire to achieve that already gives her a resume sure to make college recruiters drool: top-notch student, captain of the cheerleading squad, goalie on the soccer team, homecoming queen and president of the principal’s advisory council.

“She doesn’t quit,” said Scruggs’ English teacher at Inglewood High School, Morri Schiesel-Manning. “That’s what makes her so different. It’s like nothing is going to stop her.”

Although Scruggs doesn’t consider herself a crusader and has no broad scheme to change the world, she has strong opinions and is quick to point out what she thinks are society’s rights and wrongs.

“All I see on TV about the black community are stories about gangs, drugs and drive-by shootings,” she said. “They’re not telling any positive things. If people hear it enough, they’ll eventually start to think it. I’d like to have a more positive section of the news. The media concentrates on the bad in South-Central, but there is good, too.”

But it would be unlike her to simply criticize from the sidelines. Scruggs, who has a perfect 4.0 grade average, hopes to attend either Stanford University or UC Berkeley upon graduation from high school. And after college, her opinions about press coverage of the black community could be translated into action in the form of her career choice: broadcast journalism.

The image of the black community comes up again and again with Scruggs, fueling a mixture of pride in being black and frustration with the ignorance and prejudice she sees all around her.

One night in Washington, a handful of black Girls Nation delegates gathered in one girl’s bedroom and spent the evening chatting and “doing girl stuff,” Scruggs said.

The next morning, other white delegates told Scruggs they were scared.

“They asked me if we were going to wear berets next,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it. I think some of them had never spoken to a black person before. We broke some stereotypes, I think.”

On the campaign trail in Sacramento, Scruggs faced a question that might be perplexing for some: What color would she choose to be out of all the colors in a box of crayons?

She said her answer came naturally.

“I would be a black crayon because it’s the darkest and it’s a combination of all the others,” she said.

Norma Mansis, secretary of American Legion Auxiliary Post 188 and a member of the Girls State selection committee in Inglewood, said Scruggs fielded the interviewers’ questions with aplomb rare for a 17-year-old.

“We felt she had her head on straight,” Mansis said. “She’s not just a cheerleader type. She was definitely the most mature of the girls we talked to. She has both feet on the ground and her eyes right straight ahead.”

In Washington, Scruggs and another California delegate joined 98 other high-powered high school juniors from the other 49 states. In launching her campaign for president of Girls Nation, Scruggs said she reasoned, “If I made it this far I might as well go for it.”

Lt. Gov. Scruggs never became President Scruggs. She was edged out in the primary and then decided to forgo running for the vice presidential nomination because she knew the other senator from California had her eyes set on that position.

“Party loyalty,” she called it. Her colleagues rewarded her with a nomination as chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Political hardball was not all that transpired.

In Sacramento, the girls divided up into Whigs and Tories and learned about city, county and state government by passing laws on thorny topics like capital punishment and abortion.

Just as in real-life government, the process was slow-moving, with debate sometimes lingering for two hours or more on a single amendment. Scruggs said things became heated at times. “Five hundred girls talking about abortion--you can imagine!”

In the end, Scruggs came away from the short course on government with a better understanding of the issues that divide Americans and just where she fits into the political spectrum.

She favors protecting the right to abortions but does not think the state should pay for them. She wants to cut down on funding for classes teaching English as a second language because she fears they discourage students new to the country from learning English. She is frustrated that heinous criminals languishing in jail cost taxpayers money, but supports a plan that emerged from Girls State that would allow the convict to decide on jail or capital punishment.

“I found out I’m a conservative Democrat,” she said. “I agree with the conservatives, but not to the extremes.”