Marietta Elementary teacher meets with Congress for Speak Out Day
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A local elementary teacher met with Congress regarding the importance of health and physical education.
Marietta Elementary physical education teacher Alex Myers spoke about his travels to Washington, D.C., at Monday's Marietta City Schools Board of Education meeting.
The initiative was called Speak Out Day, sponsored by SHAPE America, a physical educational advocacy group. Myers was joined by Kevin Lorson, a professor at Wright State University.
Attendance at Speak Out Day was voluntary, he said. He decided to go when he was awarded a scholarship given out by SHAPE America. Myers arrived in Washington on Feb. 14. He and Lorson met with SHAPE America officials for training on presenting to Congress.
"The meetings were about what topics to avoid and how to get our point across," he said.
The next day, Myers and Lorson met with office staff from House of Representatives Emilia Sykes, Michael Turner, and Bill Thompson and Senators Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance. The meetings with each office lasted around 30 minutes each.
"We got to meet with the people who are closest to our congressmen and our senators," he said.
Myers said he met Brown by chance and unique colored tennis shoes caught the senator's attention.
"As we were walking out, he had come off the floor from voting, and he looks down and says 'Nice shoes!' We had a 10 or 15 minute conversation with him alone about what we were there for."
Myers said Ohio is the only state in the United States that doesn't have health education standards.
"Out of 50 states, 49 have health standards. We want to be on the same page as everybody else," he said. "Every other state has guidelines of what kids should know about their health by the time they graduate."