Students Speak Out At County Council Meeting

Team A eighth grade students at Holmes Middle School in Flint Michigan have been working this year to protect the water quality of their local beach in the Flint River Watershed. These students and their Social Studies, Science, Language Arts and Math teachers have been a part of the Earth Force Michigan Civics Initiative since the fall. The students identified a problem in their community and have been working throughout the year to investigate the issue and opportunities to resolve it. For the Holmes students, their investigations have focused around the frequent closings of a neighborhood beach due to high levels of fecal coliform found in the water. Although the cause of the bacteria has not yet been narrowed down to one source; a Children’s Farm run by the School District or high geese populations on the area park land; the eighth graders have spoken to council members, Farm staff, Parks and Health department officials in an effort to learn more about what is being done about the beach closings.

To begin their public education and advocacy efforts on behalf of this issue, the eighth graders worked with their principal to invite media to hear their story, which aired on a local radio station and in the Flint Journal. As a culminating effort to notify the community of their concerns and to voice the need for others to take action about this issue, a group of 25 of these students in Mr. Charles Tutt’s service learning class were invited to speak at a Genesee County Council meeting on May 10th. Five students spoke to council and community members about the problem, what they feel can and should be done about it, and how to work to ensure that these types of issues are addressed in lower income areas such as theirs. The council promised to continue to pursue the matter through members of the parks board of commissioners and to make sure the recent closing of the petting farm is the first step toward higher water quality in the area.

Students in Ms. Sue Anderson’s Team B science class at Holmes middle school have since returned to the area for further water quality testing in an effort to determine if the closing of the farm has had an impact on water quality. Some of these students, along with those from Team A, plan on continuing this project over the summer and possibly into next year with the new eighth graders as they explore further options to improve water quality at their beach, including planting buffer strips and working on ways to control geese populations in the area.