For their final project, seniors in Civics class brainstormed laws for possible ways to solve problems in their community. These laws were analyzed, debated, and voted on during the final class period. Then they were sent to the California Legislature, which will chose one to submit to the Assembly for discussion and possible passage.

Civics teacher David Keller said that he assigns this project because we live in a democracy where citizens have power in the government. This is a way to teach people how to improve their communities in a legal way.

“Given that we are a nation of laws and we are a country where the citizens are responsible for both choosing lawmakers and participating in the lawmaking process I assign this project to teach students the skills they will need to be good citizens,” Keller said.

Keller said that first students must think of a problem in their lives then come up with possible solutions.

“They get the opportunity to write a proposal for a law that will address the problem they have identified,” Keller said.

Senior Sam Colburn said this project will make him understand Civics more.

“Civics has mostly been a class on constitutional law and the judicial branch of the federal government, so this project is a good way to learn about the legislative branch as well as the state government,” Colburn said.

Senior Laura Jetter said because they mirrored an actual state assembly during the final period, this project will also make her have a better understanding of Civics.

Keller said that this is a project done by many other schools in the United States.

“I like the project, because it’s as much a lesson on the politics of lobbying as it is practice proposing legislation,” Colburn said.

“In fact, many of the laws that you live under were first proposed by students in high school,” Keller said.

Keller said that two years ago a students bill was passed and last year a bill was debated by the California Assembly.

“Two years ago, a student from my class had her law passed by the California Legislature and last year a student had her bill introduced, debated and voted on in the California Assembly,”  Keller said.

Keller said that a former PHS student, Angelica Kong had her law passed by the California Legislature.

“It promotes recycling programs, like the one at PHS, at all public schools in the state of California,” Keller said.

Jetter wrote a bill called the “Informed Good Patron Act,” which would make sure nutrition facts are available to the public.

“It would require all franchised, chain restaurants including fast food to have a menus with nutrition facts available if a customer requests it,” Jetter said.

Jetter likes this project because her bill is informational to the public.

“It was fun and the idea of organizing into commitment was fun,” Jetter said. “I chose to write this bill because I’m really conscious of what I eat and I believe anyone else who is should have that information available to make a healthy choice.”

Jetter said she had a hard time brainstorming ideas but this project is not too time consuming.

“I worked on it for five hours tops, the hardest part was the time it took to think of what bill to write, basically what needs to be changed in California,” Jetter said.

Likewise Colburn also said this project does not take up too much time.

“It doesn’t take that long to write a bill. But the project is more than just writing a bill, so it’s been taking up a good amount of class time,” Colburn said.