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James Younger (18, Great Mills HS) |
“The Mark Foley thing was in the U.S. Congress. It did not bother me too much as I was going to the Maryland General Assembly,” said James Younger, 18, of Great Mills High School. In an interview with The Bay Net on Friday morning, Younger alluded to the scandal around Republican Congressman Mark Foley, who resigned in disgrace after trying to solicit sex from a teenage page.
Younger has returned from Annapolis after attending the General Assembly session on the floor of the House of Delegates for one week. Younger will go again for the final week of the Page Program.
Under the watchful supervision of Great Mills High School Vice-Principal Marian Steinbach–who twice reminded the interviewee and the interviewer to keep strictly to the topic–Younger told The Bay Net he became interested in the page program after his teacher Mr. (Sean) Twigg told him about it.
Younger was one of two Grade 12 students selected to go to the page program five months ago from a pool of nearly a dozen St. Mary’s County students. “I had an interview with teachers and principals of high schools. A total of eight of them at the Board of Education (Moakley Street).”
Dr. Charles Ridgell explained to The Bay Net that the second pupil is Deirdre Farrell from Ryken High School and an alternate candidate, Amy Scheffler, was also selected in case of heavy workload in Annapolis.
“The program is a wonderful opportunity for the students to see firsthand the operation of the state government,” Ridgell said. He said no school students from Maryland are sent to the Capitol in D.C. and it was up to Annapolis to decide if Maryland students should go there.
Younger explained the working dynamics of the page system. He said when the assembly is in session the pages are on the floor of the house with a huge screen before them that shows the placing of each seat. “We are not seated on the floor, but on a chair,” he tries to explain.
He said when a delegate needs help he or she presses a button that’s affixed to their desk and a number lights up on the screen so the page knows who needs help. “It can be anything the delegate needs: a copy of bills, coffee, notes on past legislation.”
He said in effect the elected representative sends a page by pressing the button and that was why the students helping them are called pages.
Younger said he always had an interest in government functioning and thought it would be good for him to go there and see for himself how the Maryland general assembly works.
He said he was pleased to meet the delegates from Southern Maryland, John Bohanan, John Wood and Tony O’Donnell and also Senator Roy Dyson. “I also met the governor,” Younger said with delight.
He said the pagers from different counties of Maryland learned how the general assembly worked. “I got to view the different committees [the St. Mary’s delegates] were on,” he said.
While Younger was in Annapolis, he got a chance to witness the import