It started with a simple question from a student to his principal: How come there are no french fries on our lunch menu?
But like many questions that have tempted the minds of some of our greatest leaders, it took only one little question to create a big, and in this case delicious, change.
Nine-year-old Ryan Mullin, a fourth-grader at Shaker Road Elementary School, was perplexed that there were no french fries on the school’s menu. So he asked Principal William Dollard why Shaker Road did not serve them.
I told Ryan, ‘That’s not my department,’ Dollard said.
As Dollard explained, `In elementary school, it hasn’t been an offering.`
Next, Dollard joked with Mullin that he should create a petition to have french fries added to the menu.
But Mullin did not take Dollard’s joke lightly.
The students at Shaker Road had been learning about democratic government and were able to take part in a mock presidential election, learning about the actual candidates and the process a voter goes through in an election. They had also learned about making decisions in a way that has everyone included and considers every person’s individual opinion.
He drew up a petition that asked, simply, `Do you want to have french fries as a side dish?` Mullin said. He then passed the petition around to every student in the fourth grade, and, according to Dollard, had every last one of the 71 students in the fourth grade class participate.
Dollard did not even get a chance to see the petition until Mullin received a response from every single student in his grade, as he was determined to have everyone exercise their right to democracy. But not every student signed Mullin’s petition.
`Three people didn’t want to sign,` said Mullin.
But, overall, Mullin was shocked by the results he received when asking his fellow classmates to sign his petition.
`I was just like ‘wow’ when all these people were signing it because of me,` he said.
Once he had the remaining 68 students’ signatures, Mullin brought his petition to Dollard, proving that the majority of the fourth grade wanted french fries.
Dollard then consulted the district’s nutrition specialist, informing her of the measures Mullin had taken to get french fries at Shaker Road.
`She was happy that the students made the request in a polite and respectful way,` Dollard said.
And, after a unanimous vote, french fries were soon to become a frequent part of lunch for Shaker Road students-but not before another serious decision needed to be made.
The students were able to choose between plain curly fries, spicy curly fries, shoestring fries and crinkle-cut fries, Dollard said. Even though the whole school would be able to order the fries, Dollard said they left the decision of which kind of fry up to the fourth graders as well.
`After they learned that their petition had worked, we let the fourth grade kind of carry it,` Dollard said. Curly plain fries won by only a few votes, Dollard said, although the school does plan to mix it up with other types of fries throughout the year.
`I picked shoestring, but I’m OK with the ones we got,` said Mullin of the new fries that debuted at the school on Tuesday, Nov. 25.
While Mullin’s first petition landed him exactly what he wanted, he is currently taking a break before petitioning for another item to be added to the Shaker Road menu. He said he is not quite sure what the next item he petitions will be, but fairly certain he will be exercising democracy again soon.“