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McHenry gets grilled at charter school
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Published: October 17, 2008
U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry enjoyed his first-ever visit to Pine Lake Preparatory School Thursday morning.
But if he makes another trip to the new charter school campus again, he may want to restrict his tour to the art or music classes.
That's because during a 15-minute stop in Kelly Caron's Advanced Placement history class, McHenry got grilled on his voting record.
The toughest questions came from junior Ben Napper.
When the 16-year-old asked McHenry how he would deal with what Ben said was the probable outcome of next month's election — a Democratic sweep of the White House and both chambers of congress, McHenry jokingly tried to step on the boy's toes.
"How are you going to work with that kind of situation?" Ben asked.
"You have to work with who the American people elected," McHenry answered when the fake toe-stomping subsided. "And sometimes that's better than other times."
Ben then got even tougher, asking McHenry how he felt about non-discrimination and equal pay in the workplace.
When McHenry answered he was for equality, Ben asked "Then how do you defend your vote against it?"
The teen was likely referring to two bills McHenry voted against in 2007. The Sexual Orientation Employment Nondiscrimination Act and the Equal Pay Bill.
"I'm not against equal pay," McHenry said. "It's about how you achieve equal pay."
Caron, the teacher, said her class had been awaiting McHenry's arrival and that students had come armed with questions.
When McHenry reminded the class that he was a Republican and that the 10th Congressional District was GOP territory, Charon said the students were well-aware of that.
"We have heated debates on that in here," she said.
In other classes during McHenry's tour of the school, the line of questioning was less in the hardball category.
First-grade students were learning about the different states of matter. In Sheryl Sterling's fourth-grade class, vocabulary was on the agenda. Students wrestled with the word "anthropomorphic."
"I can't even spell that one," McHenry said before giving the students a quick lesson on the different branches of government.
Andrew Moceri's eighth-grade social studies class was learning about the role of William Randolph Hearst in the Spanish-American War and the advent of "yellow-journalism."
So McHenry offered some quick facts about early 20th century presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft.
He told the class Roosevelt was the youngest White House occupant and that his successor, Taft, "was the fattest president."
Moceri's students did give McHenry a chance to do a little politicking, however.
One student asked what it was like to work with President Bush.
"It's been good and bad," McHenry said. "Meeting with the president is sometimes like being called to the principal's office. He wants you to vote his way on something and, while you hate to tell the president, 'No,' sometimes you have to."
McHenry said he was impressed with Pine Lake, which, with more than 1,300 students and 106 staff members, is the largest charter school in the state.
"It's a great school with a high-tech and innovative campus," he said. "And the kids are really smart."
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