OHS teachers and students excited to tour D.C. despite government shutdown

January 16, 2019 | 3:00 am

Updated January 15, 2019 | 8:10 pm

OHS students on a previous trip to Washington D.C. Select juniors and seniors will be making the trip this coming weekend amid the government shutdown. | Photo submitted

Forty-eight Owensboro High School upperclassmen and teachers will be heading to Washington, D.C. over the long weekend. In the past, students on the extracurricular school trip visited several historical landmarks and museums, applying lessons from their U.S. History and American Government classes, both prerequisites for the trip.

But this year, teacher Lori Thurman, who has been part of this trip since 1993, has been required to restructure the upcoming trip based on the federal government shutdown.

“For the majority of students, this is their first time in D.C.,” Thurman said. “In the past, students enjoy the Holocaust and Smithsonian Museums the most. Luckily, the Holocaust Museum is still open. Unfortunately, all Smithsonians, which include the National Archives and Portrait Gallery, are closed.”

Thurman said that all outdoor monuments are open, but the public restrooms, museums and gift shops at the monuments are closed.

Mary Grace Hemingway, one of the students traveling to D.C., said she was most excited to see the Smithsonians, which are closed, although some of the buildings have been opened for certain hours. But she isn’t getting her hopes up.

“Luckily I have experience with this as the last time I went to Washington, D.C. was during the government shutdown in Obama’s term,” Hemingway said.

According to Thurman, the group will replace their Smithsonian time with the Library of Congress, which is still open.

“They currently have several exhibits which the students will appreciate — Frederick Douglass papers, baseball Americana, comic books and graphic arts, WWI, Thomas Jefferson’s Library, and the George and Ira Gershwin collection,” Thurman said.

Past OHS students on the trip to the nation’s capital. | Photo submitted

Ann Lawton Watson will be on this trip and said she is disappointed that she and her peers will not be able to experience the well-known museums, but she knows there are plenty of other options.

“We are visiting the Library of Congress and spending an afternoon in the Georgetown area,” Watson said. “I am still extremely excited.”

The group will stay in Manassas, Va., and sponsors have contemplated going to Bull Run Park in Centreville, Va. because the land where the park sits is part of America’s Civil War history.

Besides taking the two courses required for the trip, students go through an application process and must have a teacher recommendation and good behavior to attend.

“We have former students who went on this trip who have worked — and are now working — in D.C. either for members of Congress or for interest groups,” Thurman said, noting Stephen Ham, Barrett Smith, Jessica Smith and Nate Olson as four trip alumni.

Past students enjoying visits to landmarks in D.C. | Photo submitted

“Our greatest hope is that students can make the connections from what they have learned to what they see in the nation’s capital,” Thurman said.

January 16, 2019 | 3:00 am

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