Students take the lead at legislative assembly
Wearing MLA hats, youth talk cyberbullying, mental health in Yellowknife
Meagan Leonard
Northern News Services
Monday, May 11, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Students from across the territory gathered in the capital city last week for the 13th biennial youth parliament.
Grade 9 students Leah Baptiste, left, of Fort Providence and Taylor Maurice of Hay River were at the legislative assembly in Yellowknife last week for the biennial session of youth parliament. - Meagan Leonard/NNSL photo |
Nineteen students in Grade 9 and 10 each representing a territory riding were selected to travel to the capital and speak on issues affecting their peers and community. Beforehand each youth had to research community concerns and meet with their MLA to discuss issues and come up with a member's statement along with inquiries for question period.
Some of the issues brought to the horseshoe included a motion to ban use of social media in the classroom. Hunaifa Malik representing Yellowknife Centre said if social media were banned during teaching periods there would be "less distraction, students would be able to focus more leading to more participation, higher grades and more students graduating."
Despite many students speaking in favour of the idea, the motion was ultimately defeated as some pointed out many forms of social media can be useful tools for learning.
Critics also stated their belief that students generally are able to control the urge to be on their phone.
Other motions put forward included the implementation of a program to better prepare youth for post-secondary school and finding a career and an outline for anti-bullying legislation.
Grade 9 student Taylor Maurice came to Yellowknife from Diamond Jenness Secondary School to represent Hay River North. The concern she brought forward is something that had personally affected her, she said.
"My member's statement was about the strike in my town. It's been going on for awhile and I know a lot of people are very angry because the recreation centres are the main part of our town," she explained.
"I participate in hockey and I only got to play half a year and I pay a lot of money to play hockey."
Deh Gah student Leah Baptiste was there representing the Deh Cho and chose to speak on mental health awareness.
"My issue was lack of services for people with mental health issues," she said. "I looked up statistics of people with mental illness and I read articles on all the treatment centres in the Northwest Territories."
Batiste said she made friends with many of the other students who attended.
"I'm having so much fun, it's been wonderful," she said.
"I would love to be an MLA someday."
