The election of this school is about pizza versus chicken nuggets, with democracy as the winner

It’s anything but quiet in the Salt River Elementary School library on a recent Tuesday morning.

Patriotic music blares from the loudspeaker as faculty and staff put the finishing touches on decorations to welcome students on voting day. Books on democracy line the top of the shelves at the entrance to the library. Every computer monitor reads ‘VOTE’ in large letters, and red, white and blue streamers line the walls.

In one corner, cardboard dividers serve as privacy booths where students can cast their votes.

Aside from the impending national election, students at this tribal school in the swing state of Arizona will vote on their favorite school lunch. The choice in this hard-fought campaign? Pizza or chicken nuggets.

The stakes are high: whichever menu item triumphs will be served next week as students watch the U.S. presidential election. It’s part of a broader effort to teach even the youngest children about democracy and how their vote matters.

“I want these kids to grow up to be the voters of tomorrow,” said Dawn Burstyn-Meyers, who brought the annual event to this school 20 years ago through a nonprofit called Children vote Arizona. “To maybe become president or councilor to help their community.”

Building society into the curriculum

Every year, students at the school, located east of Scottsdale, get to choose between their favorite things: outdoor activities, school subjects and – this year – the best school lunch. Next week they will also participate in a mock election to vote for the president and vice president of the United States.

The teachers here focus their lessons on civics, voting procedures and democracy. In Meyers’ music and movement lesson, preschoolers learn to spell the word ‘voice’. With pompoms in hand, they sing each letter while forming the shape with their bodies.

In Audrey Yellowhair’s class, sixth graders are assigned topics related to voting procedures to present to their class. Joseph Miller reads a poster his group is preparing: “The new president must fight for our country and also heal the middle and lower classes.” Alonzo Lopez discussed the election with his family at home and said exercising one’s civic duties is essential, especially for Indians like him. “It’s important,” he says, “because our ancestors couldn’t vote.” Lopez has O’odham ancestry, like many who live in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC).

This year marks a century since the The Indian Citizenship Act was passed by Congressgiving Native Americans the right to vote. But voter suppression tactics such as literacy tests, inaccessible polling places and strict voter ID laws prevented Native Americans from voting in Arizona until the 1970s, making them one of the last groups of Americans to gain the right to vote.

Voter turnout remains a challenge under this caveat, said Martin Harvier, chairman of the SRPMIC tribal council.

He and his team are working hard to get out the vote, and these students are part of that: “Hopefully the kids will also go home and let their parents know, ‘Hey, I voted today and we’d like you to go votes, not only in our tribal elections, but also in the national elections,” which we believe is a very important election in Indian country. ”

The roads along the reservation display billboards advertising the national elections, including signage in the O’odham and Piipaash languages, spoken by some families here.

For almost two decades, Harvier has been coming to Salt River Elementary to participate in voting day. At 11 a.m., students will go to the library, where they will receive a ballot, fill it out in a privacy booth and place it in a ballot box. Harvier then places an “I Voted Today” sticker on their shirts.

‘We know our voices need to be heard’

Lynette Stant wears a T-shirt that reads “Registered Indigenous Voter” as she supervises her third-graders. She beams with pride when she sees how they participate in democracy.

“To put this in perspective, my parents were 9 years old when Native people got the right to vote (in Arizona). I am one generation removed,” she says. “So it’s so important to teach the concept of voting to our students now.”

She adds that her students have had classroom debates about which presidential candidate would best meet the needs of their community. Some are especially passionate about economic issues, while many others are fervent supporters of women’s rights.

“As Indigenous people, we know the value of our voice because everything we do is tied to the federal government, whether it’s land, whether it’s health care, whether it’s education,” Stant said. “We know our voices need to be heard.”

Once the ballots for the favorite school lunch are in, the tension at Salt River Elementary is palpable. The student council meets to count the votes.

Finally, as the school day comes to an end, students flock back to the library, eagerly awaiting the results. Amid murmurs of support from both pizza and chicken nugget voters, the speaker finally crackles.

“Are we ready for the outcome of our elections?” asks director Amanda Guerrero. For the first time that day, there is silence in the library, until she announces that, with 137 votes, “the winner is… pizza!”

Cheers, shouts and groans erupt. The crowd can hardly contain itself. A disappointed Nuggets supporter tells NPR that she was confident her candidate would win, but that participating in the democratic process was still worth it to her.

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