As millions of Americans crowd around their televisions to watch President-elect Barack Obama sworn into office, 30 high-school students from Monroe, La., will be at the inauguration watching it live. Sen. David Vitter gave students from Neville High School and Lee Junior High School tickets to the presidential inauguration.Vitter said it is important for students to witness the inauguration in person because this is such a historic election for America. “It was very important to provide as many tickets as possible to students and school groups,” Vitter said. “I hope that this trip inspires them to consider pursuing public service in the future.”Senators are each allotted about 360 inauguration tickets to distribute to the public. Vitter’s office received about 8,000 requests from people hoping to receive tickets, said Gareth Vaughan, Vitter’s public relations representative. “It was a particularly daunting task to allocate a limited number of tickets to such a large pool of deserving people,” Vitter said.Both schools began planning the trip months before Obama was elected. Karla Brown, a teacher from Lee Junior High School, said this was one of the main reasons Vitter decided to give them the tickets. Lee Junior High School started planning the trip last school year, Brown said.Neville High School also began planning the trip last school year. Jeff Gregory, a teacher from Neville High School, said the planning began in February, and they booked it with a travel company in April.  The students from both schools arrived Saturday and leave Thursday.Students were selected for the trip based on their grades and conduct, as well as their ability to cover travel costs, according to Brown and Gregory. After deciding to give the schools tickets to the inauguration, Gregory said Vitter came to the schools to meet the students, give them maps of Washington D.C. and extend a personal invitation to the inauguration.Monday, Vitter welcomed the students by hosting a reception at Capitol Hill for the students and other Louisianians attending the inauguration. Gregory said it was a “unique opportunity” for the students to see civics in action. “Watching an LSU football game on TV is good, but it’s not nearly the same as being in Tiger Stadium on game night,” Gregory said. “That’s the difference between watching the inauguration on TV and actually being there. This will be something that the students will go on to tell their children and grandchildren about.”–Contact Nichole Oden at [email protected]