Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct a misspelling of Najaquan Flynn’s name.
The Montgomery City Council has established a youth council to get teenagers involved in politics, and high school students will vote to put their classmates on the council this fall.
City Councilor Marche Johnson said she’s wanted to start a youth council since she was elected. When Najaquan Flynn, a junior at Robert E. Lee High School, spoke at a council meeting about the same thing, they decided to work together.
“Young adults are not always given the opportunity to represent their generation,” Flynn said. “We have adults who represent us who don’t know exactly what we’re going through.”
Each district will have a representative on the youth council. There will also be one at-large position. Only traditional public schools will be included on the council.
Johnson is modeling the program after youth councils that exist in Savannah, Georgia and Phoenix.
Each member of the youth council will have to maintain good grades and attendance and create three large projects every year. Johnson plans for the youth council to meet once a month and give recommendations to the full council.
Flynn said at the council meeting that he has lost several friends to violence, and he hopes that by getting teenagers involved with the youth council it will help quell violence in the city.
“By them getting involved, it can stop a lot of the violence,” Flynn said.
By getting teenagers involved, they can focus on issues that impact their generation, he said.
“Because no one’s going to fight for the youth like the youth’s going to fight for the youth,” Flynn said.
Johnson agrees that the youth council has the power to stop violence.
“A lot of times it’ll save their lives,” Johnson said.
Johnson said she felt it was only right to “include the generation that’s coming after us that will be directly affected by the policies we pass.”
Reaching teenagers will also reach their families, Johnson said, allowing the city council will be able to educate multiple generations at once.
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Alex Gladden is the Montgomery Advertiser’s public safety reporter. She can be reached at agladden@gannett.com or on Twitter @gladlyalex.
