YMCA Youths Get a Taste of the Power of Politics and Persuasion

Already, 15-year-old Jennifer Custer, a would-be U.S. senator, exhibits a politician’s sense of image.

She calls people her age young adults, not teen-agers. “I don’t like the word teen-ager. That’s kind of stereotypical,” announced Custer, a sophomore at St. Joseph’s High School in Lakewood and one of more than 900 high school students from YMCAs throughout California who will gather in Sacramento over Washington’s birthday weekend to briefly play the roles of some of society’s favorite targets--politicians, journalists and attorneys.

Custer and 10 other Long Beach teen-agers will represent the Los Altos YMCA in the Y’s mock legislature and court program, designed to give young people some insight into the world of politics and persuasion. For months the high school students have practiced lawmaking. They have run for office, prepared bills and given speeches. Now they will assemble in the state capital with teen-agers from some 70 California YMCAs, taking over the chambers vacated by vacationing legislators to stage their own Senate, Assembly and court sessions.

The glimpse of democracy with its sleeves rolled up can be sobering. Custer, a pink bow nestled in her hair, is eager for the real thing, but defeated gubernatorial candidate Brandi Redman, 17, has developed some doubts about a career in politics. “When you get deep into it, it’s kind of frustrating,” conceded Redman, a senior at Woodrow Wilson High School. “You see there are two sides to every issue.”

Then there is “the campaigning. Just getting elected takes so much money you have to bend your ethics--I think too much.” Not that Redman had to appease too many political action committees to raise money for her campaign for governor. “The financing was from my father--and it wasn’t much.”

While Redman describes the bills drafted by her teen-age peers as more liberal and idealistic than the stuff of real legislatures, the lobbying techniques of the downy-cheeked politicos apparently are no more subtle.

There is the “You vote for my bill, I’ll vote for yours” approach. The Ys with large delegations can sweep their candidates into office.

And young officeholders can fire sexist questions. For instance, Redman, one of two females running for governor, was asked how PMS (premenstrual stress) would affect her. Her reply, she said vaguely, was a bit crude.

The Los Altos delegation considered several possible bills to lobby for in the upcoming mock sessions, finally settling on a proposal that would require all 10th-graders in California to pass a literacy test.

Some of the other measures were more controversial. One would have prohibited firms from testing cosmetic products on animals and another would have urged pregnant mothers who tested positive for drugs to undergo counseling or enter a detoxification program. If the mother refused, the state could take her child away at birth.

The group does not delve into local politics, but when pressed, the students have no shortage of opinions on Long Beach issues. To wit: There are too many mini malls on too many corners, educational standards need propping up, the city is neglecting the homeless and the school board has no business tearing down homes to enlarge Wilson High School.

“I think we could destroy some golf courses and recreation clubs and replace them with low-cost housing,” Custer said.

The students already are mourning the loss of their Long Beach heritage. “They could have made this place beautiful,” 17-year-old Shannon Balchin, a St. Joseph’s junior, said wistfully, remembering the landmarks razed to make way for look-alike office buildings.

Custer, lamenting a declining quality of life, said with a sigh: “Long Beach is leaving, it’s going away.”