Some high school students ’disappointed’ in legislators for missing forum

Members of the public, including high school students from Fairfield and Maharishi School, logged onto a Zoom meeting on the morning of April 17 expecting to hear from the four legislators who represent Jefferson County at the state capitol. Instead, they heard from none of them because all four were absent.

The four legislators, Sens. Adrian Dickey (R-Packwood) and Jeff Reichman (R-Mt. Pleasant) and Reps. Jeff Shipley (R-Birmingham) and Joe Mitchell (R-Mt. Pleasant) released a statement the next day saying they all had other obligations that morning that prevented them from attending. The joint statement also stated that the legislators were unhappy with the forums because of their lack of business-oriented questions.

Some of the high school students who participated in the April 17 forum were disappointed in the legislators for missing the forum.

“To me and my classmates, it was a sign of disrespect considering our legislators’ job is to represent us, the people,” said Fairfield High School senior Kyle Jeffrey. “I felt like they should have been able to deal with questions no matter how diverse or how much of a hot topic it is.”

Logan Adam, another senior at FHS, said he was disappointed that he and the other high school students were not told ahead of time that no legislators would be present for the forum.

“A lot of us would not have shown up that Saturday,” he said.

Adam said he was looking forward to asking the legislators a few questions he had prepared.

Skylar Halley, a senior at Maharishi School, said he tuned into the forum to hear from the legislators and see how they responded to other people’s questions.

“I knew in advance that I didn't agree with some of the opinions of the legislators, however, I was still interested to listen and try to understand their perspective,” Halley said.

Like Adam and Jeffrey, he was surprised none of the legislators joined the Zoom call.

“Once I thought more about why they chose not to show up, I became disappointed, not only in their actions, but also in what it may symbolize about the relationship between the public and their representatives,” Halley said.

Halley, Adam and Jeffrey all said they follow politics in some way or another. Halley said he’s most interested in learning about COVID-19. Jeffrey said he follows policies related to climate change, and hoped to ask the legislators about it. Adam said he wanted to ask the legislators what they thought of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds refusal to host asylum-seekers now on the southern border, and about the federal government raising the minimum wage.

Adam said he was interested to know their answers since he thinks raising the minimum wage would be bad for Iowa, where a lot of his friends have $9 per hour jobs which he fears they might lose if the minimum wage were raised to $15.

One of the legislators, Sen. Dickey, wrote in an email to Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Darien Sloat that he’d like to know the topics of the forum ahead of time. Adam said he thought this was a reasonable request, but he still felt like the legislators should have shown up, even if the forum’s rules weren’t exactly to their liking.

“I understand they need to have their thoughts put together when they’re answering a question,” Adam said. “I was disappointed they couldn’t stick it out for one more go.”