Phillipsburg students lauded for role in passage of state law prohibiting sale of novelty lighters

Barber School students speak at a Phillipsburg School Board meeting about their efforts to promote forbidding the sale of novelty lighters.

When a class of Phillipsburg elementary students learned that novelty lighters were legal in New Jersey even though they resemble toys, they were genuinely puzzled.

The Weekly Reader article the students read as Barber School second-graders in October 2008 detailed how some states worked toward banning the devices that can easily fall into children’s hands.

The class decided it was time for New Jersey to join those ranks.

About a year and a half after the class helped lobby for the passage of a law prohibiting the sale of novelty lighters, the Phillipsburg School Board recognized the youngsters for their civic-minded activism.

“I think it shows tremendous initiative by these young students,” school board President Kevin DeGerolamo told a handful of the students last week.

The teachable moment

Former Barber School teacher Amy Russo-Farina said she knew she’d found a unique teachable moment when the usually quiet Jada Bullock, 7 years old at the time, spoke out passionately about how dangerous the lighters could be in children’s hands.

“It was student-motivated by all means,” Russo-Farina said. “I don’t know if I would have done that if I didn’t have the kids forging the way.”

With some help from student Madison DeGerolamo’s father, town council President David DeGerolamo, the class reached out to New Jersey Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Cryan, D-Union, with individually written letters of concern.

Two bills dealing with novelty lighters were awaiting votes and Cryan co-sponsored the more simply worded of the two, the one recommended by the students.

By December 2009, the bill was introduced as law.

Student Kyle Sofhauser confirmed there was plenty to gain from the experience.

“I learned how democracy works and that people can help change things,” he said.

A serious message

Suzanne DeGerolamo, Madison’s mother, remembers her younger daughter Gretta finding a lighter at a dollar store that was shaped into a little plastic lion. DeGerolamo said she was startled to discover the little toy picked up by her then-3-year-old child could start a fire.

That lion-shaped lighter became the class mascot in the campaign.

Russo-Farina believes hearing back from lawmakers and getting kudos from local politicians will be a source of inspiration for the grade-school class.

“I don’t think the kids realize that grown-ups want to hear what they have to say,” she said.

Madison DeGerolamo agrees to a point. Success hinges on the message, according to the articulate 9-year-old.

“We weren’t just asking ‘Could we have money?’ We were asking if we could help other people,” she said.

Russo-Farina, now a math coach and gifted and talented teacher at Andover Morris Elementary School, can see the makings of leaders in many of her former students.

“I could definitely see this making a difference,” she said. “My husband pointed out that might be the reason some of these kids get involved in civic politics and they’ll remember this as what sparked them.”

Parents say it wasn’t just the experience that will leave a lasting impression. It’s the teacher who turned a lesson into action.

“She took it to the next step,” Suzanne DeGerolamo said of Russo-Farina. “It’s definitely something the kids won’t forget.”