[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 113 (Thursday, September 21, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1559-E1560]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         PARTICIPANTS IN THE STUDENT CONGRESSIONAL TOWN MEETING

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 21, 2000

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the outstanding 
work done by participants in my Student Congressional Town Meeting held 
this summer. These participants were part of a group of high school 
students from around Vermont who testified about the concerns they have 
as teenagers, and about what they would like to see the government do 
regarding these concerns.
  I submit the following statements into the Congressional Record, as I 
believe that the views of these young persons will benefit my 
colleagues.

                Brian Lindstam Regarding Homeless Teens

       Brian Lindstam: My subject is on homeless teens. Over 500 
     Vermont teens become homeless every year in Vermont. That is 
     about two teens a day, and 300 of those teens of that 500 are 
     from Burlington. Why do teens become homeless? Here are 
     several reasons: Abuse, negligence, and one-parent households 
     where the teen is not getting the support because the parent 
     is consumed in his or her own life. Sex abuse and drug and 
     alcohol addiction can be a problem.
       Spectrum is a teen shelter in Burlington where troubled 
     teens can get support, counseling and get back into some kind 
     of schooling. Burlington Youth Build is a nine-month program 
     where they get paid $250 every two weeks and got their GED at 
     the end of program. They run this program as if it was a job. 
     If you miss a day, you get no pay. If you have a drug or 
     alcohol addiction there is a program, it is a three-month 
     program at a rehabilitation clinic called Mountain View in 
     Huntington. This is where Spectrum sends you if you have an 
     addiction or if you need help.
       I have an idea for--I have an idea that if you get a job at 
     a food facility, it is a two-day orientation to get you ready 
     for your job. If you have a job at IBM, it is an eight-day 
     orientation to get ready for your job. So I said to myself, 
     two to eight days can get you ready for a job; then why 
     cannot three months of schooling get a student ready for his 
     or her job? Nine months of schooling or four years of 
     schooling will burn out a frustrated mind, so if you have a 
     teen pick one class to excel in for three months and get a 
     $300 to $500 bonus at graduation, fee or bonus to help pay 
     for utensils or a wardrobe to get them going in their job. I 
     feel that this problem will help teens that do not like 
     school and it will open new doors to them for a better life.

                                  ____
                                  

           Matt Kozlowski Regarding Auto Insurance for Teens

       Matt Kozlowski: Congressman Sanders, I have reached the 
     point in my life where I am a young adult and I have many 
     obstacles to overcome, one of them being car insurance. I 
     will be turning 17 in a month and I am going to get my 
     license. Recently I moved from Toronto, Ontario, Canada where 
     I had gotten around the whole city with buses, subway, 
     streetcars and trains to get to mandatory destinations like 
     school and work.
       Now that I am living in Vermont, all my destinations are 
     far apart and cannot be reached by buses, subways, et cetera. 
     Therefore, I need to make a new investment, that being a car.
       Purchasing a car is not a problem for working teens. You 
     can save up a couple thousand dollars to purchase it, but 
     what is very expensive and hard to do is maintaining it on 
     the road by paying extremely high car insurance rates. A 
     single male age 16 to 18 pays on average $2,567.97 annually 
     for car insurance, compared to a single 23- or 24-year-old 
     male who only pays $994.63 annually.
       Just because we fall under the dangerous young drivers 
     category of the insurance companies, I do not feel that we 
     all belong there. I am aware that these insurance rates are 
     based on statistics, but not all young drivers should have to 
     pay high rates due to others' mistakes. The younger we are, 
     the more time we want for sports, school and our social life. 
     We do not want to have to work the majority of each week 
     having to pay a monthly insurance bill of over $200 to get 
     from one destination to another.
       One of the solutions that I would like to propose is giving 
     young drivers a regular 23- to 24-year-old single male 
     insurance rate of approximately $1,000 annually. If one were 
     to get a speeding ticket, have an accident or be cited for 
     violation or along those lines, then they should fall into 
     the dangerous young driver category. I feel that we all 
     deserve at least one chance before we fall into such a 
     category because we all are not dangerous drivers.
       I think that my proposal would be successful in making 
     teens have more time for sports in school as well as 
     resulting in insurance companies having to pay fewer claims. 
     If I knew that I had one chance before my insurance rate went 
     up from $1000 to $2500, I would definitely be a very much 
     more cautious driver. I also think that car insurance 
     companies make enough money as it is and shouldn't be taking 
     great amounts of money from minors, most of whom just make 
     enough to keep their cars on the road.
       Thank you much for your time and consideration.

                                  ____
                                  

                 Matt Cyr Regarding Emancipated Minors

       Matt Cyr: Sir, I am here to tell you about the lack of 
     knowledge people have on emancipation, and if you all do not 
     know what emancipation is, it is when a minor under the age 
     of 18 is able to move out of the house with your parents 
     consent legally and you get a legal document that says you 
     are on your own, you can sign your own, so they consider you 
     18 so you can live on your own and manage your own stuff.
       And just a little while my dad thought I would be better 
     off at the age of 17, and I thought I would too, but it is 
     kind of hard even though I am fighting through it, but that 
     is not what I am here to tell you about is my money problems. 
     It is about the lack of knowledge people have on this topic, 
     because when I am trying to get my phone, electricity and 
     cable hooked up to my place, they said I needed my parent to 
     do it.
       How can I do things on my own when and if they do not let 
     me be on my own? They need to give me a chance for me to do 
     it on my own. The law says I can sign on my own and do all 
     the things that an 18-year-old could do, but the public does 
     not know about this law and if they did they would be able to 
     say yes to the things that I need to do on a common basis.
       There are some people that do know about the law and they 
     are not sure as to what the rights I would get or you would 
     get. The only thing I ask is for you to show people about 
     this law and not just this one but other laws as well as what 
     they also mean. There are many places you can do this, like 
     on TV commercials or visits in the schools and tell them 
     about the laws. I do not see things that you guys--I do not 
     see things that people do to inform about the laws because I 
     never heard about it and I never knew about it. Why I think 
     you need to inform a lot more people about the law and others 
     is because I have hardly ever heard of this law or anything 
     about it until it happened. Thanks.

                                  ____
                                  

               Elizabeth Bombard Regarding School Safety

       Elizabeth Bombard: My topic is safety in schools. Safety in 
     schools has become a hot topic these days after all that has 
     happened in school in the past few years. Many schools around 
     the nation have heightened security to try to prevent any 
     more tragic events from occurring. The bottom line, the 
     shooting at Columbine really changed how safe students feel 
     at their school.
       Colchester High School had to take safety measures last 
     year when repeatedly we got bomb threats. For about a week we 
     had to enter the school from the front doors and go through 
     metal detectors. That goes to show even small schools in 
     small towns are affected by this. Schools throughout the 
     country have started programs to try to prevent things like 
     Columbine from happening.
       A school in Ashtabula, Ohio put together a group called the 
     Positive Education Program which helps develop social skills 
     and trust activities. This is a program that school officials 
     think could help include more students and prevent violence 
     from entering their school. Many people think they have more 
     opportunities for children to get involved to help lift the 
     students that do not feel included and may be the violent 
     ones.
       Many other schools have also started programs including a 
     school in Tampa, Florida which awarded ``Stop and Think'' 
     stickers at their own elementary school to children who show 
     exceptional good behavior. Many think this is more effective 
     than metal detectors and security guards. Even though nothing 
     extreme has happened close to Vermont, I do not think it is 
     too early to take safety measures to make sure our schools 
     stay safe for learning.
       CHS has done a little to help open more doors to students 
     or things to do, some of which are CHS Cares and Through 
     Helpers. CHS Cares is a group of students who raise money and 
     goods to make baskets for people in our town that need help 
     around the holidays. This year we supplied turkey dinners to 
     many families in the community for Thanksgiving. Through 
     Helpers are sophomores, juniors and seniors who offer to help 
     under classmen with problems they have in school or socially.
       I do agree with the many people who think more involvement 
     may help kind students. I also think that many problems with 
     children start right at their own home, but there are little 
     we can do about that. I think the schools around here do need 
     to make more programs and activities open for children to do 
     so they do not have so much free time. It should also include 
     transportation home afterwards for the students who do want 
     to do the programs but do not have parents home until late to 
     pick them up. Often the children who are causing trouble are 
     also the ones who do not have parents home until

[[Page E1560]]

     late in the evening. Having more opportunities can try to 
     help prevent the problem of violence in our school before it 
     starts.
       What I would like to see happen from doing this speech is 
     more funding in schools to try to have more clubs and groups 
     for students which includes transportation.

     

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