jackson lewis transcript

Jackson Lewis interview transcript

Nora Bartel 0:00

Okay, what is your full name and what are you running for?

Jackson Lewis 0:04

My name is Jackson Lewis. I'm running for Canyon school board district one which includes most of the Midvale and northern Sandy.

Nora Bartel 0:12

can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your age, where you went to high school, anything like about your identity you feel comfortable with?

Jackson Lewis 0:18

I am a 19 year old, recent graduate of Phil crest High School, graduated class of 2023 I was determined to run for this position. Actually, actually, I chose to run when I was 17 years old. I looked into this position. I was too young to run at the time, but I as I aged into the seat, I chose to run another motiva motivating factor, and part of my identity is I am a gay man, and in the state of Utah, queer rights are under attack, as well as across the country. That's what motivated me to run awesome. Um, you have a lot

Nora Bartel 0:53

of issues and like priorities listed on your website, and what should those are most important to

Jackson Lewis 0:57

you? So most important to me, and something that I know is on the top of the minds of so many parents is the safety of student pedestrians. I myself, I chose to scooter to this interview. It's just a couple blocks from my house. I whenever I can, I choose to not take my car. For that reason. I believe in cities being built planned for people, so a big part of my platform, and something I wanted to focus on today is on 78 south, there is an issue where there is not a traffic a crosswalk in front of Mid Valley Elementary School. And the problem with that is that I keep seeing Facebook posts of parents complaining that people are running 50 miles an hour down that street. My proposal, the reason why I have this, why this issue is so important to me, is because I want to create a crosswalk there and an island in the center of the road. And I think that that's something that can be done all throughout the district. Another thing is ending chronic student absenteeism through solving hunger, poverty and just burn out in general, one of the things I think we can do is later school start times so that students can get the sleep that they need to thrive. The thing that helped me the most solve my absenteeism problem was I got my first period excused. I got to sleep in in the mornings, and as a result, I went to school rested. And another part of my platform is more applied learning classes, classes where you can go and apply what you have been taught in the lecture based classes after having that first period excuse, the first period I went to in the day was weight training. I got to get up and actually move and apply what we were learning from a little bit of lecture at the beginning of the class, we were able to actually apply that something motivated, motivated me to go to the class. And the last point on this is solving poverty and hunger through the district's means, which that includes feeding all students breakfast and lunch, no matter their economic means. And we need more money from the legislature. I would be an advocate for Ken school district to the legislature to squeeze more money out of them. Awesome.

Nora Bartel 3:07

What has your what has been your experience as a young person running for office

Jackson Lewis 3:11

so overwhelmingly, very positive, especially just, I mean, from everyone but my opponent, it's been extremely positive from the party who's been steadfast in their support and been super, super kind, from to the people I talk to, they've all super excited about the prospects of a young person getting into politics. I will say the only person that has been directly negative to me is my opponent, Chris Miller Berg at the Harvest Days Festival, when I got my most direct interaction with her, I got to hear about her telling her people that came up and spoke to her that I was some inexperienced kid that lives in my mom's basement who has no kids of my own. So I have really no stake in this election, which I found to be quite rude, obviously, because, obviously I have a stake in this election. Otherwise I would not have thrown myself into this. So yeah, generally, Utahns are ready for young people to take the lead. Utah's the youngest state in the country, and from what I've heard from everyone except my opponent, people are ready to embrace that awesome.

Nora Bartel 4:20

Why do you think it's important for young people to run for office and be more involved in their local and national elections?

Jackson Lewis 4:26

So as I said, especially here in the state of Utah, young people outnumber every other generation. Utah has the youngest on average population of any state in this country. Utah has the most powerful young voting bloc in the state of this country if we chose to turn out and vote. So the important thing about electing young people is that one, it gives young people a direct voice in their government, when historically, especially in the state of Utah, it's been ran by young by older folks, but Utah has such an incredible opportunity to harness the energy of these young folks to really build on a future that is for all of us right? Utah has such an incredible opportunity in the next 10 years to host the Olympics for this great urban growth that we're experiencing, and that's only possible due to young people. The primary growth in our state is young people moving here for tech, for education, for whatever reason, it's young people, right? So getting young people into office will make the world of difference, especially when most Utahns don't think the legislature is directly representing them and their issues.

Nora Bartel 5:34

What advice would you give to a young person or student who is considering running for a local office?

Jackson Lewis 5:40

Talk to the local party. Choose no matter who you're talking to, talk to the local elected officials, talk to your local party, talk to local organizations. Because let me tell you, the first thing I did, one of the first endorsements I grabbed, was the women's Democratic Club of Utah. Immediately they threw money into my campaign, and they publicly supported me, and that created a boost that allowed me to actually run a campaign. So if you are scared and worried about it, just about politics in general, go and talk to your local party members, because I promise you, the world is a lot less scary than it than it seems. When I started running, I was terrified, right? I mean, getting your name out there, like people know who you are. It's a scary feeling, but just talk to the people that live in your community, because that's really all you're running for, is for the people in your community. Nothing else matters.

Nora Bartel 6:33

What would you say to people who think you're too young to run for office?

Jackson Lewis 6:38

Well, one Utah, again, has the youngest state, youngest population of any state in this country. If we're boxed out of office, then that's not really democracy, right? That's not how the United States was intended to function. So one that's boxing people out of politics is not a great way to run a democracy, too. I, as a former student, I have frontline experience in our education system. I went I went to public school my entire life, and now I'm running for school board, because I know these issues firsthand. I know the issues of teachers not being able to afford the materials for their own classrooms. I know the issues of parents being scared, of their kids not being able to come home every day, either from being shot or killed on their way home by a car. So now I'm not too young. They may think I'm too young because I'm bold and outspoken, but I'm not too young. I've been here my whole life. I have the same experiences. You just made me a little bit less of it. But I'm here too, and so is everyone else. And they're, they're, we're going to get elected.

Nora Bartel 7:49

Um, can you mention that you worked on campaigns before? Can you tell us a little bit

Jackson Lewis 7:53

about that? So, yeah, uh, during the 2020, election cycle, I was very, very passionate, obviously. And I've been really passionate about politics, really, since the 2016 presidential election. But 2020 is when I really started to take it into my own hands. I volunteered one of the earliest campaigns I was super, super passionate about was Senator Ed markey's reelection campaign over in Massachusetts. He was, he is a longtime politician, but he is a both progressive and embraced young people in his re election campaign, and as a result, he got young people excited for policies and became the first person in American history to beat a Kennedy in a Massachusetts election. That's historic. So I made phone calls for that race. I called into Boston, I called into all parts of Massachusetts to get people to vote for Ed Markey. Ed Markey. When I remember sitting watching that election with tears in my eyes thinking, oh my gosh, this is so incredible, I did not think this was possible. And then later, before the general election, I made phone calls into the state of Montana for Governor Steve Bullock's Senate campaign. Unfortunately, that race did not pan out as we'd hoped, but I gave you some great phone calls into Bozeman, into billings, into Great Falls, into all of these great places, and talked to so many great voters, and ultimately did over perform. So having these great outreach is really, really important, and it's something I have experience in, and that's something that I'm taking straight to

Speaker 1 9:18

the campaign trail, okay? And then quickly, when she asked a question, can you try to incorporate her question into your answer? Yes, yes. Like, yeah.

Nora Bartel 9:27

Um, okay. And then we, I know that banned books is one of the issues you care a lot about. Can you just tell us a little bit about, like, how you feel about that? So

Jackson Lewis 9:36

yes, I'm this is something I'm very passionate about. I know this was actually the when I got called by the party recruited for this office, one of the things they told me was my opponent is somewhat of a supporter a book ban. Well, my opponent before he passed. So this is something that's very, very personal to me. I am a gay man. I was raised in the public education system, and book banning is something that I want to fight, right? So I the state legislature gave the broad authority to local school boards to ban books. Now, if three school boards ban the same book, it's banned statewide. What I want to do on the school board is to make sure that appropriate age, age appropriate. Diverse stories are available in school libraries, such as the one behind us, not a school library, but a library, right? So, a personal experience of mine, one of my favorite stories to read, but especially when I was coming to terms with who I was, was the book series of heartstopper right? That book meant a lot to me, those comics, that comic series, meant a lot to me. I watched that TV show, fell in love with it, right? I have unfortunately seen to my great anger. School boards ran by conservatives across this country threaten and take that book off of the shelves. I checked that book out for the first time at Hillcrest High School Public Library. Had I not been able to access that book, who knows i i Would it helped me come to terms with who I was, and not having access to that information is unconscionable, and it's something that I want to make sure never happens to a student in Canyon School District.

Nora Bartel 11:17

Awesome. Um, when did you start? Like, getting passionate about politics like

Jackson Lewis 11:21

What made you start so, like many Americans, I sat in horror on November 8, 2016 as Donald Trump was elected president, literally in hysterics with tears running down my face. I was in sixth grade. I had no idea what was coming, coming. All I knew was that he was scary and that I'd seen him on TV. He was horrible to people like my mother's, to my sister, right, to people who lived on my street, right? I was terrified, and ever since then, I have been reading. I've been on social media. I've been in politics. It's been my special interest. It's been my hobby. Ever since then, and I've truly never taken a break or stopped reading or learning because it's what I'm passionate about. But 2016 is what dominates politics. Awesome.

Nora Bartel 12:15

I think that's everything.

Speaker 1 12:18

So can you, let's hit pause for a second. Can you hit pause?

Part 2

Speaker 1 0:04

With reading a big part of your high school experience and your school experience, you mentioned the Hillcrest High School Library,

Unknown Speaker 0:13

like,

2027 Elinor Bartel 0:14

can you talk about even some books, maybe? But we had you read that. I'm thinking things like 451, 1984 books that talk about censorship. I don't know if you ever came across those, or if you have any memories about your English teachers or people who had to read in schools. So

Jackson Lewis 0:36

I part of the reason I'm so passionate about this is because of one book in particular, the Book Night by heli weissel. It tells the firsthand story of a Holocaust survivor who survived multiple concentration camps, including Auschwitz, right? And I read that book until I read that book until twice in high school and once on my own. And it that book, truly, that book. Sorry, that book means a lot, right? So it helped.

Unknown Speaker 1:20

Is it okay if we just keep rolling? Oh yeah,

Jackson Lewis 1:25

yeah, that book helped me for my political views, especially someone who's so scared of fascism coming to the United States, right? But I know that book has been targeted by some school boards, and even my friends who weren't political, who went into that world at all read the book night and felt something, and it changed the perspective on things, right? So that's that. It's something that's really important to me, obviously, I guess. But yeah, that book, that book particularly, was given to me in my, I believe, sophomore and junior years of high school, if I remember correctly. But beyond that, even into my earlier elementary school years, reading was very important to me. I remember in fifth grade, particularly, I was a big reader. And in elementary school, I had a big stack of books at the corner of my desk that I would just sit and flip through in class, I read all the books at that point because I just sat and read during class. I couldn't tell you most of what I've learned that year, I just sat with my head down in red but books, they helped. Books were effort, thinking, I just make sure that they're still available.

Speaker 1 3:00

Can we ask about some of your other like

Jackson Lewis 3:06

phones in class? Yes, absolutely. So with phones in class, I have been, obviously, I'm a young person, right? I had a phone starting my first year of middle school, right? It's something that I understand why so many parents have an issue with it, why so many teachers have an issue with it. All I oppose is the legislature handing out rules to the school boards and to the districts and to teachers. My position on phones and schools should be left up to principals and teachers to devise rules that make sense based on a classroom by classroom and school bizable basis, I think it's wholly inappropriate for the state legislature to hand out that rule from a personal experience. Obviously, I was raised in areas of school shootings, right? And it brought me great comfort that I could text my parents in that case, and I know that that's of great comfort to many students across this country, especially with the Georgia National Student recently, that became a big part of the discourse in panic phones. And that's something, I guess that's something I want kids to be able to act about this their parents. So whether it be requiring phones being backpacks in class, whether it be, I don't know one of my teachers, they had a big at the front of the board, a big pouch, big thing, a pouch board. And you bring in your phone in as soon as you walk into the classroom, that's something I'm finding you can go grab your phone and phone in case of that. But what I don't support is forcing kids to leave phones in a magnetically sealed bag that they can get at the end of the day. You're calling at your phone in the case of an emergency, you can't get magnetically kidding. That's not acceptable, but yeah, having it in the classroom, but separated from kids times, because if they are distraction, and I I've missed out on a lot of education because I was sitting on my phone and now looking back in it, I realized how stupid I was. So I would love to make a policy change there so that kids don't make the same mistake I did.

Speaker 1 5:22

Awesome. I What else do you have on your paper that you wanted to talk about? I

Jackson Lewis 5:25

just got a bunch of bullet points because I knew that he was asking about my issues, and I wanted to make sure that I had all my stats right. But something I did want to talk about a little bit more intensively is my school breakfast and lunch program, especially because it's not something that only the board can do alone. It's something that has to be done in a coordinated effort with the state government. And I have been laughed at when I propose, oh, we need more money out of the state legislature. I could help. I could get negotiate more money. Either they call me naive, and to some extent, I I understand their words and I understand their pessimism. But as I mentioned earlier, new Asian politics is coming to the state of Utah younger than ever. But also something that I wanted to point out is with amendment D being dead in the water as it stands, there is a semi strong initiative process left over in the state of Utah, 2026 is an important year for the state of Utah. We have no statewide elections coming up, but we have local races. Probably could be on an independent and fair map. And who knows, there could be initiatives coming up with a newly re, strengthened initiative process that could give more money to our education process. So I'm telling you. What I'm telling you here is, don't give up. There is in a there is so much fight left ahead, and particularly about this program. School lunch and breakfast are funded by state controlled alcohol sales. Currently, only 10% of the total revenue of that tax actually gets put into the state's uniform budget for school meals, I think. And what either the legislature can do, or what can be done via an initiative in 2026 is to increase that number so that kids can fully get go to school and count on being fed a lot of meal when they get there and at lunch, no kids should be hungry, because no kid will learn if they're hungry. Okay? I read an article recently by another school board candidate, doctor, Kevin Koros, in the grand School District, he wrote about our need for a universal school lunch program. Right? He according to his article, it cost the state about $50 million a year. We're already spending about $40 million a year on the free and reduced lunch school program. Already. It's only a ten million increase in the state to provide school lunch for everyone. No worries about punching in a pin, no discrimination, no feeling bad about not being able to afford it. You can just go to school and get a meal every day, right? It's something that can that can't be done, and it's something I want to get done, but I do recognize it's something that needs to be done in conjunction with the legislature or via an initiative in 2026 any other

Unknown Speaker 8:16

bullet points you want

Jackson Lewis 8:21

to back to the pedestrian safety. Just real quick, I had the story. I posted this about my on my Instagram story as it happened, not as it happened when I got home, because I was driving right. So I was driving on Ninth east on the turning left on to Hillcrest drive, which I live in that area, and there were two, two middle school students, I'm assuming, they were walking home from Union middle school, and they were walking and they were crossing that crosswalk to get to the apartments on the other side of Hillcrest. Drive right. They were just about to cross into the lane where you go, that way, right toward the school, and a car who was in front of me to turn out, turn right to the lane and miss them by just a foot right. So when I went home and looked obviously outraged and in shock that I almost watched two kids get run over right, I looked at the school way safe walking path that was right along it. So my proposal is we need to move the safe walking paths away from busier to roads where roads were the speed limit is above 3540 miles an hour, right and onto neighborhood roads, and the district needs to create a partnership with local city government, Salt Lake County and the Utah Department of Transportation to prioritize neighborhood connectedness, and especially walkways from neighborhoods to schools that are not along major arterial roads, like 72nd along ninth and seventh east along major roads like that.

Speaker 1 9:51

Where was that pedestrian crossing you were talking about? Exactly like, where's an example of a dangerous so

Jackson Lewis 9:57

the one that the example that I provided was hill the crosswalk of Hillcrest drive, Hillcrest High drive, and ninth east. It's right there, like right by the Chad sports apartments, I believe is what they're called. It was right there. That's one that's really not another one that actually could become a problem. But as as time goes on, is there is a plan to build pathways along canals to connect the school district the school boundary of Mid Valley Elementary School, which runs largely along one of the Jordan River canals right by my house. And there is a crossing on 72nd south where that that this hypothetical walkway would be. And I went to this meet, this meet, this planning meeting, where they were laying out this proposal for the redevelopment of 72nd and luckily, there will be a pedestrian grade crossing at that that point, just like there is on state right, there's the button, and it stops everyone overhead, and you can cross right? That's a good thing. That's something that we need to see more of another dangerous, dangerous place that I mentioned previously in in this interview is on 78 south. There is a Midvale, Mid Valley Elementary School in front of it. There's a three lane road to one lane running either way, with a center turning lane and space on me, a space on either side for either parking or whatever, right and I see, as I mentioned earlier in the interview, Facebook messages almost every single day of parents who have their kids almost get run over by either one car or just a bunch of cars going to 50 miles an hour on a residential and school zone road. What needs to be done here and what can be done along all Kenyan school district is something called traffic calming measures, where you either build into the road you you physically make the road thinner, to subconsciously make drivers go slower. And that's something that can that's really important, that needs to be done on 78 south via a a median with trees right to eat, to not only slow cars down, but to help the urban heat island effect, which is really bad over there. And as well as there's actually no crosswalks to get from the neighborhoods across the street, actually, where my opponent lives, that street named after her, to Mid Valley Elementary School, there isn't a crosswalk at all. In fact, I scooter pass there today. There isn't a crosswalk at all, so you may need to build a crosswalk there, one that's raised off the road so that it physically stops, makes cars slow down so they're going over a bump. And we need to make that road walk, excuse me, thinner by creating a median in the center and by pulling the sidewalks into a little bit more into the road. That's when you slow down cars along polling routes like 78 south, amongst a million other places across the canyon school district where kids are getting stroking killed nearly once a month.

Speaker 2 12:55

Sorry, just to touch back on the book banning. Do you know if Canyon School District has any history with banning books that are like in their words, controversial or just,

Jackson Lewis 13:08

I'm unsure of the record of directly of Canyon School District, what I do know is that the state has handed them the broad authority to ban books, not just in canyons, but if two other districts do it as Well, in museums in the entire state, and my priority is to make sure good stories, age appropriate stories are kept in the hands of children. I'm not sure of the current record of this district. I haven't heard of any controversies coming directly from Kenyans School District. I mostly hear controversies out of Davis and nebo right, or Alpine, right. But yeah kenned School District, I just want to make sure that it stops, the buck stops here. Right.

Speaker 3 13:51

And then, this is kind of a youth focused kind of things,

Part 3

Nora Bartel 0:01

Okay, what advice would you give to a young person or student who is considering running for a local office?

Jackson Lewis 0:06

So what I would say to a young person who's considering running for office, do it. It's tremendously rewarding, not just even if you win, like I've had to come to the terms with the fact that I could lose too, right? So one of the things that I've thought to myself is, regardless, the education that I have gained from this experience is invaluable, and I'm a better person because of it. I have deeper ties to my community. I know my elected officials by name. Sometimes they come up and just walk up and say, Hey, can I give you a hug? A 15 year old me would have been sobbing, crying, breaking down if my state senator came and gave me a hug, right? But to young people who feel like it's not for them, who feels like it's scary and it's not worth it, trust me, it is, even if you lose, doesn't matter the experience you'll gain out of it is something you'll never gain in a college, in a classroom. It's something that can only be gained out on the field. And it's it's worth it. So do it?

Um, what are, what are some things that you think young people can do to be more involved? Like, you can't run for, like, one for stuff, yeah, what

Nora Bartel 1:21

would you So, actually, going into this year, I was as I was debating whether or not to actually, because I've been looking at the seat for a while to those who take or wanting to take the plunge, I say, who want to get involved, do it. It's worth it. And sorry, could you repeat the question

Jackson Lewis 1:45

like, What kind of things can students or like young people who can't run for

office yet do to be more involved in

Nora Bartel 1:54

local politics? Okay, so to those who are too young to run, those who maybe even be too young to vote. What you can do this cycle, and it's something that I thought about doing before I chose running for to run for office. One, if you can drive you can wheels to the polls. You can take voters to the polls. It's like an Uber system that happens every election cycle. You can drive voters directly to the polls. You can also, like I did, yeah, you can make phone calls. One of the most in dire and need things right now for campaigns is volunteers. We need people to make phone calls to knock doors. There's no age limit for that you can have. I, in fact, I heard candidate stories of candidates in past cycles having their young children go out and outdoors and say, hey, my mom's running for office. Okay, they were 12 years old. Like, yeah, you can do that. Getting out in in the political space, getting out it just in your community. It's, it's something that you don't have to be 18 or 21 or 25 or 35 to you can do it now. And it's something that I wish I had done a little bit earlier, and it's something that I would I would going back. I would do, I would do differently. And it's something that I would that's something I gained from this experience that's invaluable, right? It's just the community that you build. So go out and talk to your neighbors. Actually talk to your neighbors. That's that's one of the most important things you can do. Interpersonal political connection is the number one form of political persuasion is family members, friends, neighbors talking to their family members. Because who really cares about what the TV or the mail has to say, right? They care about what their family and their friends have to say. So if you are 15 and you're worried about Donald Trump getting elected and him taking away queer rights or deporting 10s of millions of people, right, talk to your neighbor, who you know is undecided, even if they're 15. The fact that a 15 year old's coming up to them and telling them to vote for Kamala Harris, that means a world to a lot of voters, even if you think it's scary. So just talk to people

Speaker 1 4:06

awesome. You clearly like love politics. Have an act for it. Do you have any personal aspirations or goals in politics in the future?

Nora Bartel 4:16

Well, something that's been keeping me driving right is this dream that the Wasatch Front can be a beautiful, world class city, right? Not one that's steeped in traffic and inversion every year, but one that's built on other transportation, people and affordability, and one that's just one that matched people look forward to living in, right? So that's my main goal, is to turn Utah into the best place humanity has ever lived. That's my goal. That's my inspiration. Great, awesome. Would you mind if they take i

DMU Timestamp: October 17, 2024 20:24