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Messiah Stokes isn’t afraid of being told he’s too young to make a difference. The Lankenau High School senior was one of hundreds at PA Youth Vote’s annual “Give Us a Ballot” march.
“Throughout history, it’s always been the youth who stepped up, and they’re the ones who are being affected the most,” he said.
Students from more than a dozen Philadelphia high schools marched from LOVE Park to City Hall, carrying signs, chanting and encouraging their peers to vote in the upcoming midterm elections. PA Youth Vote, a nonpartisan coalition of students, educators and community members, organized the march in partnership with the School District of Philadelphia.
Stokes and other students used the march to continue protests against the district’s facilities plan, which will close or merge 17 Philadelphia schools, with changes set to begin as early as next school year.
“Shutting down the school doesn’t just mean shutting down a place for them to go to,” Stokes said. “They’re going to be missing out on the bonds they had between students, their teachers, that feeling of a home.”
Lankenau is one of the schools set to close, and Stokes has been active in efforts to prevent it. He’s attended and spoken at board meetings, and says his peers are “afraid for their futures.”
Though Stokes isn’t eligible to vote until next year, he urges other young people to exercise their constitutional rights.
“No matter what, the older generation cannot frame our future,” he told the crowd. “We need to learn from them, look at their mistakes and [do better].”
