New Haven Independent

“These kids are here because they want to be,” said Paulishen. “This is one more of those adult things that graduating students can do.”

Paulishen, a civics and government teacher at Hillhouse, has been running the voter registration drive for three years. “In civics class we teach empowerment,” said Paulishen. “The kids realize they have a say in the process.”

Shalice Culbreath, a student in Paulishen’s AP civics class, says there’s no excuse for people not to register. “It’s right here, it’s brought to the school.”

Paulishen said he hoped the school would turn out 100 or more new young voters. There are “roughly” 175 seniors at Hillhouse. Some students are ineligible to vote.

Connecticut requires graduating high school students to take at least one semester of civics and government. Hillhouse requires a full year. “We owe some credit to the state for making this a requirement,” said Paulishen.

But the interest in voter registration would not be as high were it not for Pualishen.

“Mr. P has put me on to a lot of things,” said Stephen Hardy, a student in Paulishen’s class. “It’s like a drug, I want to keep on it.”

Hardy was one of several of Paulishen’s students who went before the city to address the issue of the suggested curfew.

“The students took ownership of that issue,” Paulishen said.

Paulishen sees merit to the civics courses beyond just active democratic participation by students. “One student said to me, ‘I never used to watch the news, but now I watch it and I understand it.’ ”

The teachers and the school are behind the drive. Regina Cummins teaches math; she brought her whole class to Paulishen’s room to register. “One of our responsibilities as teachers is to make sure our students are civic minded and become good civic citizens.”

The drive helped one adult register, too. “I was stopped in the hall by another teacher,” said Paulishen. “She asked if teacher’s could register too, she just moved here. I said ‘Of course.’ “