With midterm elections happening in November, Lakeland High School junior Paul Meadors is putting on two student-led political forums in October to help his peers question the candidates.

Meadors also helped organize the panel for the walkouts in April.

“After the walkout last year, I felt like I could do more for my community, and I thought about how can I impact my community next year,” Meadors said. “We have elections, and I thought it would be cool to have a student-led forum. I want to keep the momentum going by having an event focused around activism and motivating people to vote in elections.”

Meadors has been working to gather political candidates running in the November elections, both local and federal. He has racked up a sizeable list of candidates for the two-day event.

Already committed to the event are Corey Stewart, a surrogate for Tim Kaine, Ryan McAdams, Peter Wells, Mike Duman, Leroy Bennett, Sherri Story, Diane Foster, Karen Jenkins, Lorita Mayo and Sonya Allen.

Meadors will be making another round of calls to encourage more candidates to attend the event.

The forum will be moderated by Meadors, and students are encouraged to submit questions online. Those questions will be reviewed by Meadors and others before being asked at the forum.

“it would be great if we could get a full range of topics. While there are no guidelines, hopefully they will be about political issues, but all questions are welcomed to be submitted,” Meadors said. “We obviously want to cater to everyone, because we want it to be about what the students want.”

These forums aren’t just for students that are of voting age, and Meadors hopes every student, no matter their age, comes out to listen and learn.

“I think it is important, because you may not be voting right now, but eventually you will vote. The idea is to create a more educated electorate and get students involved in political process,” Meadors said. “As long as students are able to learn about candidates and their government, our nation will become better and be more informed on what is going on.”

The forums will take place over the course of two days from 6:30 to 9 p.m. on Oct. 11 and Oct. 12 at Lakeland High School, 214 Kenyon Road.

Local students can submit their questions to tinyurl.com/yavpoytj.