By: Kirk Tran
State Assemblyman Kansen Chu spoke in the MHS theater on Oct. 2. Students were allowed to leave their third period classes to listen to Chu.
Chu spoke on a variety of topics, ranging from his reasons for running for office to his neutered bill championing student mental health. The event was capped by Chu’s issuing of certificates acknowledging the contributions of campus club leaders.
“[T]hroughout my years as a public servant, when I look in the mirror, I see a graduate student, who came to the United States with not a lot of resources, and I worked hard and I got my Master’s Degree and got a job and raised a family,” Chu said. “I wanted contribute back to the community, and I felt that I owed the country, and that’s one of the reasons I choose to run for public office.”
Chu spoke about many issues that concerned him as an assemblyman, such as students’ mental health. He stated that one such attempt was watered down as it passed through legislation, but Chu also said he would continue to address the issue.
“Initially, I wanted to have a mental health professional at every school, at a ratio of one mental health professional for every 200 students,” Chu said. “But finally when it reached the governor’s desk it changed to every school has to inform the students and your parents of the mental health services in your area, at least twice a year. So it got kind of washed down quite a bit, but I’m still trying to identify some funding source to provide mental health services, counseling services, in every school in California.”
During his speech, Chu encouraged the attending students to participate in government. Chu also lauded the high girl-to-boy ratio of his audience and stated that diverse leadership leads to better legislation.
“Another big concern we have in the state is the low turnout for election, especially the younger people, the people in their twenties, so this year we moved forward a bill, and the governor is signing into law, to allow people at age 16 to pre-register to vote,” Chu said. “We’re trying to encourage the involvement of the young, of bright minds like yours, to help to elect the candidate that can best represent you to help us to vote on some state proposition or your local measure that you felt that will benefit our state and your local.”
“In the room here, I counted more female than male students in the leadership. That’s great.” Chu said. “We’re always fighting for gender equities in the state of California, trying to bring up more diverse leadership, in our society, in our state. From more diversity, I believe we can craft our legislation more precisely and more reflect our people, and more adequately, so I want to applaud all of you here, I know you are all ASB or some club leadership position. That’s really, really, a very good, good start.”
Senior Grace Chang expressed her approval of Chu’s efforts to reach out to the community of MHS. Chang similarly stated her appreciation of the assemblyman’s vigor.
“I liked how [Chu] gave the time and effort to come to our high school, to give a speech and awards out to us.” Chang said. “I also liked how he had the ability and the agility to talk to us students for a very long period of time, like an hour.”
Despite her praise of Chu, Chang said she was puzzled by the lack of cohesiveness in Chu’s speech.
“[Chu’s] speech felt kind of not–there wasn’t really a topic, so I was kind of confused,” Chang said.
Chang said she appreciated the certificate that she was given as well as the intent behind it.
“Physically, I got a reward. That was good,” Chang said. “Mentally, I took a lot of encouragement, from knowing that the district does care about our leadership and being acknowledged was very–it shows how the district cares about how students are able to run schools and the clubs.”