''There seems to be a great concern among high-school students that the issue of the nuclear arms race wasn't being addressed,'' he said.
Dobbins said about 40 students had attended the first meeting. Its founder, Sandra Eagle, a county resident who has since moved to Connecticut, had been active in the Westchester nuclear-freeze campaign and had sent a letter to high schools inviting students to an organizational meeting in the fall of 1985. The Westchester student nuclear-freeze group has been in existence for a year. At Mount Vernon High School, the Black Unity Club organizes student trips to Africa. Pelham High School sponsors seminars featuring noted public figures. Woodlands High School in Greenburgh has an after-school Current Events Club in which students discuss issues. To encourage interest in current events, high schools countywide sponsor a variety of lectures, clubs and trips. Nearly a dozen school administrators and teachers interviewed said the emergence of the group appeared to reflect increased interest in political activism among some high school students, but they noted that the number of students involved was relatively small.Įducators said that high-school student activism these days was more likely to include participation in student government or in community social-service projects, such as raising funds for the homeless. The student group is made up of about 20 public and private schools in the county, according to the group's leader, Thomas Dobbins, a recent Manhattanville College graduate. Linda Savarese, a student at John Jay High School in Katonah, said students there had formed a group known as Students for Peace and were planning to hold a Nuclear Awareness Week in March.Ī number of high-school groups are also active in Westchester Students Organized for Peace, known as Westop, a countywide student organization. The Mamaroneck students are part of a small but organized cluster of high school groups around the county seeking to focus attention on the arms race. Supporters of the referendum viewed the action as a symbolic statement of their opposition to the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons. The group, which has about 20 active members, is lobbying for a referendum to have the high school declared a ''nuclear-free zone'' - that is, off limits to nuclear arms.Ī similar referendum was approved two years ago at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua. ''We wanted to dispel the prejudice that everyone involved is a hippy,'' said Erin Ryan, a senior and co-founder of Mamaroneck High School Students for Peace.
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