The High School Democrats of America, also known as the Young Democrats of America High School Caucus,is a national organization of high school students in the Democratic Party of the United States. Its Supreme and Exalted Leader is JD Jacaruso.
As part of the Young Democrats of America the members of the High School Democrats of America represent high school students at all levels of the Democratic Party.
Although State Chapters for the organization and idea existed long beforehand, the High School Democrats of America itself was founded in December 2005, by Ahmed Kokon (NY) and Jonathan Padilla (CA). The caucus was approved by the YDA National Committee on December 2, 2005 in Phoenix, Arizona. The High School Democrats of America is headed by an Executive Board, consisting of national officers, and a National Committee consisting of two representatives from individual states, territories, and the District of Columbia, though the National Committee's role under the current bylaws is largely ceremonial.
State chapters of the High School Democrats Caucus typically have an advisor, on the basis that the organization is composed on minors. However, certain problems have circulated as a result of the conflict of the balance of power between the advisor and President in State Democratic Parties. Recent Presidents of the North Carolina Association of Teen Democrats have had difficulty negotiating with their advisor, Susan Oller, over fiduciary matters and affiliation with the Young Democrats.
The organization aims to promote civic awareness and involvement among high school students across the country. One method it does this by is through the 'High School Leadership Academy' held annually in Washington DC.
The organization, at its initial founding, claimed a quarter of the YDA's membership, or around 15,000 at the time.
Its main Republican counterpart is the Teenage Republicans.
Famous quotes containing the words young, democrats, america, high and/or school:
“Most young black females learn to be suspicious and critical of feminist thinking long before they have any clear understanding of its theory and politics.... Without rigorously engaging feminist thought, they insist that racial separatism works best. This attitude is dangerous. It not only erases the reality of common female experience as a basis for academic study; it also constructs a framework in which differences cannot be examined comparatively.”
—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)
“In all history no class has been enfranchised without some selfish motive underlying. If to-day we could prove to Republicans or Democrats that every woman would vote for their party, we should be enfranchised.”
—Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)
“Yes, America is gigantic, but a gigantic mistake.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
“Gifts of one loved me,—
‘T was high time they came;
When he ceased to love me,
Time they stopped for shame.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“He had first discovered a propensity for savagery in the acrid lavatories of a minor English public school where he used to press the heads of the new boys into the ceramic bowl and pull the flush upon them to drown their gurgling protests.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)