At one open school, "Obama for Your Momma" and other signs

Almost all city schools were closed today to allow voting, but not Hunter College High School, which is in a murky land of its own, being a free school and a publicly funded one, but one that is not under the city Department of Education’s purview.

Hunter students did not let themselves or their teachers forget that it is Election Day. A ninth-grader, Simone Policano, told me the hallways were filled with students wearing Obama T-shirts and pins, some homemade, and one student wore an Obama Halloween mask to every single class. (“Obama For Your Momma” was a popular slogan, Policano said.) Policano said she even saw two McCain T-shirts — yes, even at Hunter, on the traditionally Democratic Upper East Side.

The election also came up during lessons. Policano said she spent her entire global history class talking about where each student stood, where his family stood, and how the Electoral College’s votes might play out. (Three out of 24 families were supporting McCain, Policano said.)

Among the high school seniors who could vote, Policano said that one stood out: a girl who turned 18 yesterday.