South students tackle issues of importance

South High students studied issues of local, national and global importance, then presented their research and suggested ways to make the world a better place on June 8.

It was the third year the school has participated in the Project Citizen program, which is funded by the federal government. Students have to create a simulated hearing on a major issue. This year, South students chose oil dependency, texting while driving and nutrition in schools. Each group had to make three recommendations for change.

Drawing interest from Nassau County Legislator Fran Becker (R-Lynbrook) was the presentation on texting while driving. The group, made up of juniors Alam Ahmed, Jonelle Douglas, Frankie Haggerty, Katerina Kokkoris, Ahmed Masr and Rachel Olson, recommended a bumper sticker campaign as well as a student assembly to warn against the dangers of text messaging and driving at the same time.

Becker said he would like to take their message to the Nassau County Legislature, which has already banned texting while driving, and to high schools across Nassau County. “Let’s see what we can do together,” he said. “I’m ready to help.”

Haggerty said the group learned a lot about the topic through their months of research. “We discovered how prevalent it was to our society,” he said of texting while driving, “and how dangerous it is.”

A video presentation they put together included footage of crashes that were the result of a driver being distracted because they were text messaging. The group also got the South High Parents Club to sponsor their bumper sticker campaign, with the hope that the message will be seen by all drivers. “We were thinking of ways to reach out to everybody,” Haggerty said. “It’s not enough to do it in school.”

Haggerty said it will be an exciting opportunity to present their research to students at other schools and is hoping to form a successful partnership with Becker and the county Legislature.

Ninth-graders Tim Dolan, Chris Infantino, Nihal Majumder, Amelia Van Sertima and Eric Vlesmas gave a presentation on oil dependency. Dolan said he had to contact engineers from several companies to get statistics on oil consumption.