Mayor Martin Walsh visited the Fenway High School on Sept. 13.
Courtesy Photo
By Alexa Lopez
Special to the Gazette
The hot topic of the day on the morning of Sept. 13 was the news that Mayor Walsh was making an appearance at Fenway High School on Mission Hill. Students and faculty were ready to give the mayor and his staff the warm Fenway welcome.
Once the mayor stepped foot onto our campus the mission became to highlight the Fenway core values among students in their classrooms. Ultimately, showing the mayor how each student works hard, is themselves, and is always encouraged to do the right thing. Once Mayor Walsh arrived he was greeted by a group of faculty, and students in the lobby of the school. Introductions were given, photos were taken, and the small talk began.
Slowly but surely, the tour of the school started, and one of the first stops we made was to Ms. Fussner classroom. Ms. Fussner is an English teacher who was instructing a class of freshmen. When Mayor Walsh walked in the students were immediately eager, hands propped up ready to have their questions asked. The first question was a heavy hitter: a young freshman asked about how the escalating issue of drug addicts loitering around the Methadone Mile region was going to be dealt with. The mayor responded immediately, confirming that he knew this was a grand issue impacting many communities within the City of Boston. The Mayor stated he would later be attending a press conference regarding the current drug epidemic in Boston.
The mayor visually and verbally showed his empathy, through sharing his own life struggle against alcoholism in the past. The mayor credited his struggles as always having played a part in his personal growth and journey to becoming a great leader of the city of Boston.
Throughout the course of the tour, Mayor Walsh continued to stop in other classrooms and answered tough questions about immigration, policies being passed by the President, violence within the neighborhoods of Boston, and probably the most important question of all, “What is going to be done about the school lunches?”
As the morning progressed, Mayor Walsh connected with students by posing for Snapchat videos, and just simply talking about sports and classes. In the couple of hours Mayor Walsh was at Fenway he got to feel the close knit community that is a top value here. As the visit from Mayor Walsh came to an end he was given some fabulous Fenway gear and this year’s summer reading book, “The Hate U give” by Angie Thomas. This left Mayor Walsh thinking about the essential question this year, “How to do right in the face of injustice?”
Alexa Lopez is a student at Fenway High School.