The Anatomy of Politics: My Inspirational Teacher Story

By: Caitlin Clift

I was approaching the end of high school, and the talk of college buzzed around classrooms. Meanwhile, I was at a loss. I had no idea where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do, or what my passions even were. I wanted to make a change like every other kid, and as much as someone could do at my age. Yet, I still didn’t know exactly what. It wasn’t until my anatomy class in my junior year of high school where I was introduced to politics and policy making that something finally clicked. Yes, you read that right. Anatomy class. 

My anatomy teacher, Mr. Atallah, was a tall, curly-haired man who was always happy and extremely passionate. While most of the class consisted of dissecting animals and memorizing parts of the brain, Mr. Atallah often set aside some of class time to introduce us to a lot of political issues, as well. This was a topic that was essentially taboo at my public high school. A high school in conservative Orange County where we don’t ask or talk about politics, but a lot of the time it’s implied. Mr. Atallah introduced me to the debate around trans individuals competing in sports and lowering the voting age, to name a few. Yet the light bulb truly went off when Mr. Atallah talked to us about heroin safe injection sites. We learned about the opioid epidemic and the government’s failures, and my teacher explained to us how other countries like Canada have implemented these safe injection sites, where there are clean needles, nurses, and many forms of resources and support. Instead of further stigmatizing drug usage, these injection sites make it cleaner, safer, and address the opioid epidemic in a much more beneficial way. I felt inspired. That same year, I joined YMCA’s Youth and Government, a state-wide organization designed to introduce high school students to politics. We had conferences in Fresno and Sacramento, where thousands of students from across the state would participate in mock courts, create legislation, and debate. I decided to introduce my legislation on the implementation of heroin safe injection sites to the fellow 400 students in my commission. I wrote the proposed legislation, gave my speech in front of hundreds of peers, argued for my case, and in the end, was one of the few that passed by vote at the state capitol in Sacramento. This experience led me to eventually deciding to pursue political science as a major, and led me to where I am today, working at Evolve. At the end of the day, it was all because of a great anatomy teacher at my public high school that I ended up pursuing politics and public policy.