Lying in a hospital bed in her family’s house in East Hampton, Crystal Hayes started to say her life was ruined the day she and her boyfriend, Christopher King, were hit by an allegedly inebriated driver as they stood on the side of Sunrise Highway, next to their car, on Aug. 6. But she stopped herself. 

“I don’t want to say it has ruined my life. I hope it hasn’t,” she said. 

She suffered broken legs, a shattered pelvis, broken ribs, and a broken jaw that was wired shut for weeks. Nearly three months and seven surgeries later, the 34-year-old still cannot walk. 

“I hope that I come out of this and I’m stronger, and I can do everything I did before,” she said in an interview last Thursday. “But when I’m sitting here and all I’m doing is thinking and I just have all this time on my hands, it really makes it hard to think of any good that could possibly come out of this.” 

Medical bills are piling up, and she is overwhelmed and scared just thinking about how they will pay them, she said. With everyday expenses too much for their families to keep up with, a fund-raiser will be held for the couple on Saturday at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett. Starting at 7:30, the evening will feature karaoke, dancing, raffles, and a cash bar. Admission is $20.

On that fateful Saturday in August, according to state police, Ulyana Yaremko, a 20-year-old nursing assistant who lives in Hampton Bays, lost control and skid­ded sideways, hitting Ms. Hayes and Mr. King at about 11:40 a.m. They were standing on the south side of the highway, between Exit 65 in Hampton Bays and Exit 64 in East Quogue. They had stopped when they saw smoke and flames in the woods on the opposite side of the road. They said they thought there had been an accident. It turned out to be a raging brush fire. Ms. Yaremko was charged with driving while ability impaired by drugs, a misdemeanor.

On Monday, a Suffolk grand jury returned an indictment, elevating the charges against Ms. Yaremko to vehicular assault in the first degree, according to online court records. Free on $10,000 bail on the initial charge, she will be arraigned on the new charges in Suffolk County Criminal Court on Nov. 14.

The name of Ms. Yaremko’s new attorney has not been released. Carl Irace, who represented her at her first arraignment and has reviewed the facts of the case, said, “It is very unfortunate that two people were seriously injured, and our community feels badly for both of them. They certainly deserve our community’s support. However, I am unaware of the existence of facts that would prove criminality or that this was anything other than a terrible accident.” 

The new charges bring Ms. Hayes little solace. She admits that she is not only in pain physically, but also grappling with the emotional toll of such an accident. 

“There’s a lot of depression and sadness and anger. I’m trying to just break through that,” she said. A former drug counselor, she said she feels for Ms. Yaremko on one hand, but what upsets her is that she drove under the influence, based on information given to her by the detectives investigating. “What bothers me is she made the decision to get into a car that day.”

An advocate for victims of drunken driving got in touch with the couple recently to facilitate therapy. “I feel like I need it,” Ms. Hayes said.

She has not received any information, through the press, police, or prosecutors, that Ms. Yaremko is remorseful. “I’m angry that she’s not taking responsibility for the fact that she almost killed me and injured two people. She doesn’t seem to understand the magnitude of what she’s done.” 

Ms. Hayes is just now coming to terms with it all. It was not until two weeks after the fact that she found out exactly what had happened. “The first two weeks are almost like an out-of-body experience. It doesn’t really feel real. Maybe it was the fact that I was in a fog from all the medications, or maybe it’s the fact that I was in shock,” she said. 

Of the accident and the immediate aftermath, she recalls only snippets. She remembers taking out her cellphone to call 911 about the fire and then hearing “a screeching noise” and seeing a car come at her sideways. She came to on the ground as emergency personnel were cutting her clothes off and tending to her. She knows she was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital, but does not remember it. Doctors told her that if she had not received such care right away she might have lost her right leg.

She woke up in the hospital days later, after having been brought out of a medically induced coma. 

Mr. King, a Sag Harbor native who is 39, was also knocked unconscious. His pelvis was broken, and he suffered a concussion and an injury to his back, for which he is still receiving medical treatment. 

“He’s in a lot of pain,” Ms. Hayes said while Mr. King took one of the many calls they receive from insurance companies. 

Even though he is in pain, “He’s probably my number-one helper. He does everything for me,” she said. Her wounds need attention. Her back, where her pelvis had to be fused to her spine, has split open twice. Skin grafting on her legs is still healing. Mr. King helps her get to the bathroom and with bathing. 

“I never really expected to have to rely on Chris for all these things, especially now — maybe when we were 90, but not right now.” 

Money is tight. The no-fault car insurance ran out almost immediately with her first operation, Ms. Hayes said. An attorney is helping sort out the insurance. A GoFundMe account that was set up in the days after the accident raised $5,490 to date, but it has yet to be used, as they wait for their attorney to figure out what they owe.

Their families are helping as much as they can with the day-to-day cost of living. Her mother is even paying $150 a month to rent a wheelchair ramp for the house. Saturday’s fund-raiser will help them with living expenses.

The support they have received from the community is “beyond my imagination,” Ms. Hayes said. “I really appreciate the support.”

Most of the companies accused of noise or curfew violations at East Hampton Town Airport during the summer have agreed to pay $500 fines in a plea-bargaining arrangement adjudicated by Justice Steven Tekulsky in Justice Court on Monday.

One firm, Flex Jet, has agreed to pay $2,000, covering four violations, but another, Zabar’s Bread, owned by Eli Zabar, has informed the court that it has retained the Manhattan law firm of McBreen & Kopko. Eli’s was charged with two noise violations, but exactly what it plans to contest is not clear. 

 Some of the final agreements have been signed by the defendants and received by the court, with the balance on their way, Nicole Shipman, the court’s clerk on zoning matters, told Justice Tekulsky. The firms’ appearances in court were waived as part of the agreement. 

“We have restrictions at the airport,” Michael Sendlenski, the town attorney, said Monday, “and we expect people to follow them. If they don’t follow them, there are consequences.” He added, however, that the town had had a “well over 90 percent compliance rate.” 

According to the town attorney’s office, out of the thousands of flights, from small jets to helicopters, there were only 38 violations this year, down from 64 in 2015. Mr. Sendlenski said it was unlikely that offenses would be repeated  by those charged.

“We expect people to comply and they are complying, with the exception of the very rare circumstance. There are other actions we can take with respect to the code,” he said, adding that he does not expect them to be needed. 

Most of the cases for which agreements are awaited are expected to be finalized during the next court date on the matter, Nov. 28. Eli’s Bread is also expected to be represented in court that day.

Traffic at the airport increased slightly this year, and noise complaints between Jan. 1 and the end of August were down by 53 percent from the same period last year, according to a recent report to the town board. 

Aircraft are barred from landing or taking off from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. at the airport, with an expanded ban for craft deemed to be noisy from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. 

East Hampton Town enacted the curfews last year in an effort to address noise that was causing complaints from across the East End. 

Though challenged in court by an aviation group, the curfews were allowed to stand and went into effect in July 2015. A once-a-week limit on takeoffs and landings at the airport by noisy aircraft was barred by the court, however. The town has appealed the decision, and the aviation group is seeking injunctions against the curfews. A decision by Judge Joanna Seybert of Federal District Court in Central Islip is expected by the end of the year. 

In a decision issued Friday morning, a federal appeals court barred East Hampton Town from enforcing three 2015 laws aimed at addressing excessive aircraft noise at East Hampton Airport.

"The town is deeply disappointed" in the decision, Michael Sendlenski, the town attorney, said in a statement Friday afternoon. 

An aviation group called Friends of East Hampton Airport had sued the town seeking to overturn two overnight curfews and a law restricting noisy aircraft to one takeoff and landing per week during the summer season. A lower court blocked the once-a-week limit, but allowed the overnight curfews to stand.

On Friday the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the lower court's decision on the landing and takeoff limits, but said that the two curfews — a general ban on takeoffs and landings from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. and an extended ban from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. for noisy aircraft — should also have been blocked.

"In so ruling, we express no view as to the wisdom of the local laws at issue," the court wrote. "We conclude only that federal law mandates that such laws be enacted according to specified procedures . . . "

In enacting the airport noise laws, the court said, the town failed to comply with procedural requirements of the Airport Noise and Capacity Act, "which apply to public airport operators regardless of their federal-funding status." The town had argued that because it was willing to forego future federal funding, it was not subject to those requirements.

Referring to earlier case law, the court wrote that the Airport Noise and Capacity Act allows local airport operators to impose noise or access restriction on certain classes of less noisy aircraft only after "180 days' notice and an opportunity for comment" and on the quietest class of aircraft only when those restrictions have been agreed to "by the airport proprietor and all aircraft operators" or have been "submitted to and approved by the Secretary of Transportation after an airport or aircraft operator's request for approval."

The three laws were East Hampton Town's attempt to address excessive aircraft noise that had prompted complaints from the North and South Forks. The curfews took effect in July 2015.

"The Court's opinion undermines local control of operations at the town-owned airport property and establishes that the federal bureaucracy controls regulations in the area of aviation noise abatement and control," Mr. Sendlenski wrote. The town board, he said, "has always held the belief that it had a public policy responsibility to protect local residents from the loud and disturbing effects of aircraft noise," and to "provide residents who are impacted by aircraft noise meaningful and deserved relief." 

On Monday, a number of companies accused of noise or curfew violations at the airport during the summer of 2016 agreed to pay fines in a plea-bargaining agreement reached with the town. There were 38 violations in the summer of 2016, down from 64 the summer before, according to the town attorney's office, which noted a "over 99 percent compliance with the curfew regulations."

"Although today’s court decision places the solution to the aviation noise problem firmly at the feet of Congress and the F.A.A.," the town attorney's office wrote, "the town will continue to explore every available option so that the residents of the East End won’t continue to be inflicted by an unrelenting din from the skies above."

With 455 of 473 districts reporting, Representative Lee Zeldin has apparently won a second term serving New York’s First Congressional District, easily defeating his challenger, former Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst.

Unofficial results from the Suffolk County Board of Elections had Mr. Zeldin, running on the Republican, Conservative, and Independence Party ballots, with 169,709 votes to 118,390 for Ms. Throne-Holst, running on the Democratic, Working Families, and Women’s Equality Party tickets, or 59 to 41 percent.

Greg Walden, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, has issued a statement congratulating Mr. Zeldin. “He has been a committed public servant, fighting for the interests of his constituents and sponsoring numerous bills to combat the threat of terrorism both home and abroad,” Mr. Walden said. “I am excited to continue working alongside Lee in 2017.”

State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle looked likely to win re-election. With 206 of 212 districts reporting, Mr. LaValle, running on the Republican, Conservative, Independence, and Reform Party ballots, led his Democratic challenger, Gregory-John Fischer by 67 to 33 percent.

Likewise, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., seeking re-election to the State Assembly on the Democratic, Working Families, Independence, and Women’s Equality Party tickets, held a comfortable lead over his Republican challenger, Heather Collins, leading by 62 to 38 percent with 88 of 90 precincts reporting.  

Update, 9:20 p.m.:  East Hampton Town police have made contact with the pedestrian's family. Her name has not yet been released and no further information was provided. 

Originally, 8:47 p.m.: East Hampton Town police need the public's help in identifying a teenager who was struck by a pickup truck in Springs on Tuesday evening. 

Police responded to the pedestrian accident at the intersection of Springs-Fireplace Road and Abraham's Path at 5:24 p.m. The Hispanic female, estimated to be between 15 and 17 years old, was conscious but incoherent, police said.  "We have been unable to identify her or make notification to family members," police said in a statement Tuesday night.

She was treated by ambulance personnel with the Springs Fire Department and was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital.

Police further described the pedestrian as weighing about 100 pounds, wearing all dark clothing, including black pants and a black hooded sweatshirt. She was wearing ear buds and had a pink pocketbook.

The public can call the East Hampton Town Police Department at 531-537-7575 with any information. 

Details of the accident were not immediately available. 

It is difficult the morning after the election to come to grips with what they said could not happen: Donald J. Trump will follow Barack Obama as president of the United States.

Among the terrifying aspects of the coming Trump years is that he has surrounded himself not with the country’s best minds on the right but with embarrassing second-stringers like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who so far has barely escaped indictment in the Bridgegate scandal. Then there is Congress. The big test will be whether Mr. Trump is independent-minded enough to veto the more dangerous schemes that will come from Republicans in the House and Senate and to reconsider what he and they will do about the vacancy on the Supreme Court.

For many of us who live on the East End of Long Island and for those who vacation here, Washington, D.C., seems very far away. Yet in many ways the federal government’s role is significant here. Consider that almost the entire North and South Fork economy is powered by the labor of mostly Latin American workers; sudden changes in immigration policy could be catastrophic to the farming, construction, and hospitality sectors. Abandoning Obamacare could plunge many of our friends and neighbors back into the ranks of the uninsured. And if predictions are accurate, upheaval in the stock market could have a profoundly negative effect on local real estate.

The East End should be at the forefront of work to combat climate change and the sea level rise it produces — aided by visionary leadership from Washington. Now that seems impossible, and backward motion on international emissions control agreements could have a devastating, irreversible effect here over the coming decades. If a Trump-led government reduces support for alternative energy, the Northeast could again be affected by pollution from coal-burning power plants. Mr. Trump’s anti-regulation views could gut the Environmental Protection Agency and slow efforts to preserve wildlife and assure viable fish stocks for future generations as he and Congress rip apart other federal agencies.

Washington is not quite as far away as we might wish. The risks for our region of the Trump years are very real.

The atmosphere at LTV Studios in Wainscott, which the East Hampton Town Democrats rented Tuesday night for an election-watching celebration, was far from celebratory.

Some people paced, frowning. Others sat huddled in small groups, whispering to each other, eyes glued to the giant screen tallying the counts. They cheered a few of Hillary Clinton's victories in key states, but booed Representative Lee Zeldin after someone changed the channel to show his victory speech. And when it was announced that Donald J. Trump had won in Ohio -- the state considered the strongest predictor of presidential victory for the last several decades -- a murmur passed through the crowd of about 40. They remained hushed afterward, as the prospect of a Democratic defeat grew more and more certain. Even the free cookies went mostly uneaten.

"I'm really patriotic, and I love the democracy in this country, but I'm really sad for it right now," Cate Rogers of Springs said as the evening wound down and Mr. Trump's victory became imminent. "There's this us-versus-them mentality. Whoever 'us' is or whoever 'them' is, it's just not the America I grew up in. That's all I can say."

Few people were eager to speak on the record, preferring to keep their thoughts about what was happening to themselves.

Betty Mazur, the vice chairwoman of the East Hampton Town Democrats, who helped mobilize about 100 Clinton volunteers this year, called the idea of a Trump presidency unfortunate and frightening. "We really have to find out what is possessing these Trump supporters to make them so susceptible to people like him," she said. "They are not reasonable or logical. We have to try to understand them."

Jeanne Frankl, the town Democratic chairwoman, said many committee members felt that "there really has been an existential crisis for America. This is the most challenging election for many of us in our lifetimes, and East Hampton has a lot of people who have been around a long time. I don't think they have seen anything like it."

The Sagg Bridge will get the rehabilitation it so desperately needs starting later this month. Sagaponack Village officials announced Monday that the Bridge Lane structure will be closed to all vehicular and pedestrian traffic on Nov. 14 at 7 a.m. for the extensive repairs. It will reopen by May 15 at the latest.

The nearly $1.2 million project has been a long time coming, following a lengthy battle to protect the area’s rural character that ended last year with Southampton Town selling the bridge to the village for $1. The work is being funded by $500,000 in state grant money that Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and Senator Kenneth J. LaValle secured this summer along with money the village is taking out of a capital reserve fund.

Improvements to the small country bridge, which was built in 1923 and crosses Sagg Pond, connecting Bridgehampton to Sagaponack, will include updating drainage along the approaching road and repairs to the causeway and seawall. The bridge will have a new deck, curbing, and sidewalks, and its railing will be fixed.

The town had wanted to use federal money to repair and widen the 91-foot-long, 24.5-foot-wide bridge, but Sagap­onack officials intervened.

Village officials had discussed doing the work in two phases, but after engineering reports were finalized and the money from the state came through, it was decided that doing all the work at once was best, according to Rhodi Winchell, the village clerk-treasurer.

While the bridge is closed, drivers will be detoured to Sagaponack Road or Montauk Highway. The boat ramp at the bridge will also be closed during the work, and boaters and duck hunters looking to get out on Sagg Pond will have to do so from Sagg Main Beach.

The village board awarded the contract for the work to Keith Grimes Inc. at its Oct. 11 meeting, Ms. Winchell said.

Coastal retreat, however politically unpopular it may be, is the only logical response to sea level rise, an environmental advocate told an audience at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton on Saturday.

Kevin McAllister of Defend H2O,  formerly the Peconic Baykeeper, said that municipalities, the federal government, and the Army Corps of Engineers are making the wrong choices based on political and cost considerations rather than the long-term, science-based planning that would allow resilience. 

The intertidal zone — where the marine system meets terra firma — is characterized by dynamic equilibrium, a system that will remain in balance or adjust based on the supply of sand, the shape of the beach, energy, and sea level rise, Mr. McAllister said. “If something is changing, there will be a modification on one or all sides of that equation,” he said. 

But as illustrated in slides depicting coastlines on Long Island as well as in the Carolinas and Florida, the consequences of hard structures such as jetties, groins, and geotextile tubes are more harmful than effective, he said. He called such efforts, along with the elevation of structures and roadways, both expensive and shortsighted. 

“If we’re not looking at it in a holistic manner — a large system — we’re short-selling the dynamics and the continuity of sand flow,” he said of efforts to protect a particular section of shoreline. “You almost have to keep connecting the dots, if you will, with structures, because of the impacts of the initial structure that is causing downdrift. We’ve seen this time and time again.” 

On Montauk’s north coast, the beach on the eastern side of the inlet is accreting, he said, while the harbor’s jetties block the natural migration of sand westward. As a result, “you have property owner after property owner trying to stabilize the shoreline for protection of their homes” west of the jetties, “all the way to Culloden Point.” 

He questioned the wisdom, for example, of the Army Corps of Engineers plan to dredge the inlet, deposit the sediment on the “sand starved” beach, and construct a groin field intended to lock in the deposited sand. “We’re talking a lake environment, so the sediment is different,” he said of the inlet. Depositing that sand on a “high-energy ocean-style beach,” such as that abutting Block Island Sound, “the material will not match up. It will be finer, under wave attack will disappear very quickly, and then we’re left with groins, more structures out there.” 

The appropriate approach, he argued, is sand bypassing, or recouping the material on the eastern, updrift side and moving it to the west. “They don’t want to spend the money to do it,” he said. To the Army Corps, “this is just another job, and then cut and run. You have to invest in the proper approach, in this case sand bypassing, which would require annual maintenance, and moving material through, to have some semblance of stability on this downdrift side.” 

Where revetments or geotextile tubes are installed under the sand, the roots of beach grass that naturally run deep and stabilize a dune system cannot perform that function. “These plants never fully mature, never do what they do best,” he said. 

At Mastic Beach, which, like downtown Montauk, is at low elevation, “you can see the wetlands migrating, tidal marshes moving landward in conjunction with sea level rise,” Mr. McAllister said. Where the Army Corps wants to elevate houses and roadways, “what we have going on with sea level rise is inundation, groundwater coming up vertically. . . . As much as we may be controlling surge and storms, you’re not changing anything with regard to flooding.” A better approach, he said, would be to “buy out the homes, as opposed to foolish structural remedies that will have no bearing on reality.” 

Pointing to Dune Road in Quogue, Mr. McAllister cited a prevalence of “sunny day flooding” due to coastal inundation. “With respect to certain areas where we have developed” — including Lazy Point in Amagansett — “because of their low-lying elevations, they’re going to be susceptible to sea level rise.” 

With a scientific consensus that New York State’s coast will experience a sea level rise of between 16 and 36 inches by the 2050s, he said, these low-lying areas are in peril. “Elected officials do not want to hear me, but because we have minimal development in this strand of Dune Road, I think we need to have retreat from this area, and not continue with big investments.” Over the long term, “it’s a losing prospect to think that we can define that fluid line, the dynamic edge, and say we’re going to stay there forever.” 

That includes downtown Montauk, he said. “We have to find the political will to . . . buy out those 10 or 12 seasonal hotels, extinguish the structures there, and bring in a high volume of native beach sand. If it means dredging offshore and beach nourishing in the interim to restore functions and values of the natural system, that’s where we need to go. That will provide greater protection to the downtown while we’re figuring out where we need to go with the downtown,” which, he said, “will become an isthmus at some point. These are hard choices.”

Maximillian Osborn said he signed up for East Hampton High School’s Advanced Placement government class to help him figure out whom to vote for in this year’s presidential election, but two months into the class, even with daily discussions of the race led by his teacher, Billy Barbour, Maximillian, 18, still has no idea who he will vote for on Tuesday.

“I personally am really annoyed that this is my first election and these are my options right now,” he said to a reporter visiting his class on Monday. “I’m not a fan of either candidate right now. . . . Their morals just don’t seem in line for a president, I think.”

Feverish discourse on the 2016 election is seemingly everywhere right now — from newspapers and television to social media and even in the hallways and classrooms in our schools. The students are being inundated with information and opinions, Mr. Barbour said. “They are a lot more informed than in previous generations. . . . They have access to all the technology. When I was a kid, there were three channels. If I didn’t want to hear Ronald Reagan, I would turn off the TV or switch channels. That’s not an option for them. They’re in it to a degree I don’t think I’ve seen before.”

One of his students, Ciara Bowen, confirmed his theory. “You can’t avoid it,” she said. “You have commercials on your Snapchat, and it’s always on Facebook. Everyone is forced to be part of this election, more so than elections in the past. It’s because of how big of a character these candidates are. They’re kind of wild.”

The Ross School held a teach-in yesterday, bringing together students and teachers from 7th through 12th grades — for a whole day of lessons on government, history, politics, and issues such as foreign policy, immigration, health care, and the Supreme Court. Kevin Snyder, a cultural history teacher there, called this year’s election “a teachable moment.”

“To talk about what has been said has been challenging,” he said. “This isn’t a normal election. I think everyone can agree with that. It has been difficult to look at some of the things that have come up and discuss them with students.”

He has observed Ross students to be “keenly interested in the election,” particularly those who are headed into college next year or who are international students living in this country.

“We are focusing on the present but turning toward the future,” Mr. Snyder said.

For some students, the election is a real-time history lesson, but others are frustrated that the process seems to have devolved into something else. “I think it’s not even about politics anymore. I feel like this election is just getting so far off topic,” said Jacqui Thorsen, an East Hampton senior.

At Pierson High School, students in the International Baccalaureate first-year history course went all in on the election last week, teaming up as Republicans or Democrats to hold a mock debate moderated by two peers and their teacher, Ruth White-Dunne. It was so intense that some of the students admitted afterward they had been dreading the exercise.

“The debate itself was very stressful to prepare for, but I think it was very important to talk about politics because it does affect our everyday lives,” said Alex Dudley, a junior. “Our parents and the news tell us what to think, and us developing our own opinions is what I think is the most important.”

A classmate, Hope Brindle, agreed. “There is a horrible sense of dread when you’re about to share what you believe in with people you know who don’t share the exact same thing,” she said. “Not because you don’t respect their beliefs . . . but because there will be some conflict between the parties. But it’s important to talk about those kinds of things with people who have different opinions than you in a nontoxic environment, and I’m glad I got that opportunity.”

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have even had a presence in elementary classrooms, though it is more subtle. Mark Carlson, who teaches second and third grades at the Wainscott School, said that his students know the two candidates’ names and what they look like, but may not know what they stand for. “They’re definitely aware of them, which I think speaks volumes, whether positive or negative,” Mr. Carlson said. 

As Election Day approaches, Mr. Carlson has been leading lessons on how the U.S. government works. The activities will culminate in a mock election on Monday, but instead of casting a ballot for Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Trump, the Wainscott children will vote for a fictitious class president — “Billy,” “Sarah,” or “Brian,” who are proposing ideas such as more recess or less recess, no homework, fewer tests, and free candy at school.

“It’s a little difficult to get politics involved in schools with the younger kids,” Mr. Carlson said. “They start bringing in things that adults share with one another, and I don’t know if I wanted the culture of the classroom to reflect that. It has been pretty crazy.”

Older students seemed frustrated by the election, especially those old enough to understand the national discussion but not old enough to vote. And many are anxious about the results.

“I am stressed, definitely,” said Nia Dawson, a 17-year-old Bridgehampton senior in the school’s A.P. government class. “I’m going to be 18, 19, 20, and this person will be in office during some of the most important years in my life.”

“It is our future representative and leader of the U.S. that is on the line here,” Thomas Brooks, a Pierson junior, said. “Although we are not making an impact on that, I think there’s always stress involved because it’s such a big role to be filled.”

“People often don’t realize how much this election is actually going to affect us, because over the next four years we’re going to be done with high school and some of us are going to go straight to having a job,” said Gregory Baum, another Pierson junior. “The person who is elected is really going to affect what it’s going to be like finding a job.”

Raymond Maldonado, another Bridgehampton senior, fears electing a president who is eager to go to war, because of the prospect of the military draft. Raymond, 17, lost a cousin last year to the conflict in Iraq. “I’m going to be 18, but I didn’t have a vote. It’s going to affect my life directly even though I had no say in it.” 

What also became clear is the role schools play in teaching children about politics, civics, and government. Many students and teachers interviewed agreed that it is imperative that schools teach or talk about the election. Raymond, who transferred to Bridgehampton two weeks ago from a school UpIsland, said no one was talking about the election at his old school.

“We expect our schools to teach our kids physics, math, and all of that, but if we’re not expecting them to teach about politics, who is going to teach them?” he said. “I was definitely looking at both sides before I came here. . . . How are you supposed to know if you’re not educated?”

The 2016 election has helped Alexandra Perez, an East Hampton senior, learn how important it is to be engaged in politics.

“People do have the ability to change things,” she said, “if they’re voting even in minor elections for local boards. You don’t have to be hardcore out there in every campaign, but it’s definitely important to be informed and do your part.”