Recently, The Warrior conducted a survey exploring Sherwood students’ political views, which can be seen in the “The Pulse” on page 14. The survey showed a great variety of political opinions at Sherwood, but that generally, students have liberal opinions about current controversial issues. Students demonstrated liberal views on both domestic and social issues, while they were divided on education issues and showed conservative views regarding immigration issues.

Overall, responses to “The Pulse” survey varied greatly on many political topics that are currently creating controversy in the United States and the world. The questions from the survey that gained the most decisive results included the topics of denying service to a customer based on a business’ religious beliefs, same-sex marriage, global warming, federally enforced vaccinations and minimum wage. Students were most split on issues like whether or not immigrants should be forced to learn English, if the United States should declare war on ISIS and if the U.S. government should allow the death penalty.

A possibly alarming occurrence was that many students provided contradictory responses to the survey. For example, although one student selected primarily conservative responses, such as indicating the he was against same-sex marriage, he wrote that he would vote for Hillary Clinton for President. Similarly, although one student wrote that he was democratic, he said he would vote for Marco Rubio for President. In both instances, which were not isolated occurrences, students selected a Presidential candidate whose political stances contradicted their own.

This mirrors what is happening with some of the voters in America. Many people feel strongly about one or more political issues but support a candidate and/ or party that opposes their views. For instance, Kentucky voters recently elected a governor whose campaign included an initiative to eliminate Medicaid, which is ironic because Kentucky has very high Medicaid rates. In other words, many Kentuckians picked the candidate who vows to do away with the very healthcare supports that they need.

It was also worrying how many “unsure” responses were given on “The Pulse” survey. While it is understandable that a student might not have a strong opinion on a couple of current issues, the number of “unsure” responses indicated that many students were most likely unaware of many of the current political and social debates. Not having knowledge of these issues is a growing problem in the United Sates, particularly with younger people. This can be seen in the survey, which is alarming considering that some students who answered are seniors and will be voting in the next Presidential election.