2000
December 1 . . . Mock Trial Deadline
December 4 - 7 . . . Supreme Court in Session
2001
January 9 - 10 . . . Court of Appeals in Session
January 22 - 25 . . . Supreme Court in Session
February 6 - 7 . . . Court of Appeals in Session
February 15 . . . Images of Freedom Photography Contest Entries Due
March 5 - 8 . . . Supreme Court in Session
March 13 - 14 . . . Court of Appeals in Session
April 10 - 11 . . . Court of Appeals in Session
April 16 - 19 . . . Supreme Court in Session
May 1 . . . Law Day
May 10 - 13 . . . National Mock Trial Championship
May 15 - 16 . . . Court of Appeals in Session
May 29 - June 1 . . . Supreme Court in Session

How Can Your Students Serve in the Legislature?

A great way for students 12 years of age or older to participate in government is by being a Page for the Kansas House of Representatives or the Kansas Senate. To begin with, Pages are given a tour of the Capitol, a list of rules for Pages, and are then sworn into service. A typical day for a Page would include: assisting committee secretaries in committee meetings, running errands for legislators and secretaries, assisting with mailings, and distributing committee agendas to committee members.

At the end of the day, the Pages, their Representative or Senator, and the Governor will have their photograph taken. A free copy of the photograph is provided to each Page. Additionally, each Page is paid $3.00 for their service and given a Certificate of Appreciation by the sponsoring legislator.

Kansas Youth Give Bush a Victory

Kids Voting students from communities located throughout Kansas visited official polls November 7, 2000, and cast ballots for their favorite candidates and issues.

As in the official state election tally, Kansas youth voters made George W. Bush the victor over Al Gore. Bush earned fifty-six percent of the student vote to Gore’s thirty-seven percent. Five other third party presidential candidates received the remaining seven percent of the student vote with Ralph Nader receiving the most third party votes at three percent.

"The students of Kansas earned the right to vote in this national Kids Voting election by researching the candidates and issues, and learning about voting and elections in their schools," said Susan Buehler, Executive Director of Kids Voting Kansas. Over 50,000 Kansas students cast their ballots along side adult voters in this exciting election.

Three Kids Voting Kansas Student Opinion Poll questions also passed with the Students of Kansas. The three ballot questions, listed below, were selected for referendum by high school students at the Capitol Assembly.

• Student Opinion Poll Question #1: There should be a uniform statement outlining guidelines for the first amendment rights of students.
• Student Opinion Poll Question #2: Taxes should not be deducted from the paychecks of individuals who are under eighteen years of age and not eligible to vote.
• Student Opinion Poll Question #3: The State of Kansas should limit class size in public schools.

First established in 1988, Kids Voting USA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan civics education program with the goal of securing the future of democracy by involving educators, young people and parents in the election process. Kids Voting USA now reaches five million students in 39 states.

Kansas was one of eleven states that participated in the original national pilot project for Kids Voting USA in 1992. From Johnson County to Johnson City, youth voters in 25 Kansas school districts participated in this year’s election.

U.S. President
George W. Bush/Dick Cheney . . . 30,775
Al Gore/Joe Lieberman . . . 18,188
Third Party Candidates . . . 3,523

U.S. Representative, 1st Congressional District
Jack Warner, Libertarian Party . . . 42
Jerry Moran, Republican Party . . . 92

U.S. Representative, 2nd Congressional District
Stanley Wiles, Democratic . . . 521
Dennis Hawver, Libertarian . . . 435
Jim Ryun, Republican . . . 1339

U.S. Representative, 3rd Congressional District
Dennis Moore, Democratic . . . 5537
Chris Mina, Libertarian . . . 835
Phill Kline, Republican . . . 3387

U.S. Representative, 4th Congressional District
Carlos Nolla, Democratic . . . 8964
Steven A. Rosile, Libertarian . . . 1981
Todd Tiahart, Republican . . . 14072

Kansas Supreme Court Retention . . . Yes . . . . No
Donald L. Allegrucci, Position 6 . . . . . . 2633 . . . 1031
Robert E. Davis, Position 7 . . . . . . . . . 1597 . . . .979

Kansas Court of Appeals Retention . . . Yes . . . No
G. Joseph Pierron, Jr., Position 3 . . . . . . 1344 . . . 699
Christel E. Marquardt, Position 5 . . . . . . .1145 . . . 544

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes . . . No
Constitutional Amendment #1 . . . 840 . . . 459
Constitutional Amendment #2 . . . 667 . . . 500

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Agree . . . Disagree
Student Opinion Poll Question #1 . . . 3310 . . . 1636
Student Opinion Poll Question #2 . . . 3845 . . . 1275
Student Opinion Poll Question #3 . . . 3539 . . . 1803

The Supreme Court in Review broadcast, held October 12, 2000, was by all accounts successful despite some initial technical problems.

There were 193 electronic requests for the video streaming of an interactive role play and conversation with schools across the state. They included sites at Girard, Oakley, Clearwater, and Sublette, as well as Topeka, where the broadcast was originated. Participants and viewers were able to watch Court of Appeals Judges G. Joseph Pierron Jr. and Robert L. Gernon present a role play of two U.S. Supreme Court cases. Following the role plays, Court of Appeals Judge Carol Beier joined her colleagues to answer questions.

Judge Pierron and Gernon took different approaches to presenting the role plays, with Pierron primarily staging the role play in the Board of Education’s video conference room, while Judge Gernon opted to assign roles to participants at the various sites throughout the state. Students seemed engaged throughout what was a two-hour presentation and urged teachers to participate again.

Carol Woolbright, from the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center at Greenbush, served as technical coordinator for the production and enabled its live broadcast over the Internet. She reported that students at her site were very enthusiastic about the broadcast and want a repeat performance. She laughed and said they wanted to do it again as soon as possible, next month or even next week.

Actually, the broadcast and its preparation took more than a year as Greenbush and the State Board of Education united two technologies–compressed video and the Internet–to make it happen. A web site, www.greenbush.org/court, also was launched for access by interested in teachers and students. The web site, which is still on line, contains lesson plans, law-related education materials, a bulletin board, and case summaries, as well as a video archive of the broadcast. The video archive will be in place for approximately a month, but the web site will continue to be online and updated as a central law-related education site.

Once again, the Young Lawyers’ Section of the Kansas Bar Association is offering a statewide mock trial competition leading to a nationwide competition. If your school has never participated in the competition, this project may be of interest to teachers in law-related subjects, government, speech, debate, forensics, drama, or gifted programs.

At the suggestion of past participants, the competition dates have been adjusted to allow more preparation time between state and national competition. Since participating teams try the same case at both local/regional and state competition, less time is needed to prepare between these tournaments. However, for the national competition, the case changes, making it necessary for additional preparation time. The adjusted schedule will allow the team representing Kansas to prepare better for the national competition and also allow more time to finalize transportation and housing details.

The local/regional competition has been scheduled for February 23 and 24, 2001, and the state competition has been scheduled for March 9 and 10, 2001. The winner of the state tournament will travel to Omaha, Nebraska, for the national competition, May 10 through May 13, 2001.

1. "How a Bill Becomes a Law," is a videocassette that is appropriate for middle school and high school students, and explains the process of making a law. This instructional video includes interviews with government insiders and on-the-street interviews with teens. Library number 372.8/H83a.

2. "How a Bill Becomes a Law," is a film designed for elementary students. This film explains some of the major steps that must be taken in the lawmaking process. Library number 328.37/H83.

3. A set of three posters, also titled "How a Bill Becomes a Law," is designed for high school students. The posters explains the steps a bill goes through to become a law. Library number 328.37/H83b.

4. If you want a book on "How Federal Laws are Made," then check out library number 342.04/H83. This book is designed for high school students and describes the legislative process, the budget process, the federal register and its use, and how to find United States statutes and United States codes citations.

Grade Level: Appropriate for grades 7 & 8.

Goal: The purpose of this activity package is to provide activities that will encourage students to understand how our government introduces, passes laws, and makes policy decisions and, also, to develop in them an increased awareness of the issues affecting their lives and how they can provide input into the American political process. As the people of the United States face some very difficult decisions ahead of them, youth leaders can use this activity package to stimulate interest and recognition of issues that are shared by all Americans, thus, helping our youth realize that they can make a difference in federal policy.

Objectives: Students will be able to:

1. Identify the steps by which a bill becomes federal law in the United States.
2. Explain the roles and objectives of a congressional lobbyist.
3. Identify at least three issues affecting America today and explain the problems or conflicts that make them issues.
4. Identify the U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators.
5. Identify at least three local government officials.
6. Identify at least three national or local special interest groups.

Materials: Social Studies text, Guest Speakers.

Procedure:

1. Invite a town councilperson to speak to your class. Ask your visitor to describe how a bill or some piece of legislation is handled at the local level.
2. Have the students use their social studies text and/or other reference materials to discover how our bicameral (two house) legislation came about.
3. Have the students use their social studies text and/or other reference materials to discover and chart the steps by which a bill becomes federal law in the United States.
4. Invite a state congressperson to speak to your class. Ask your visitor to describe a particular piece of legislation, how it was started, how it fared on floor debate, whether it passed and what its effects are likely to be.
5. In relation to activity #1, try to arrange a field trip to observe your local city government at work on some important issue. If at all possible, see if some people from the government would be willing to participate in a question and answer period following the session.
6. Have students examine recent issues of newspapers and magazines as well as radio and television broadcasts to determine what local and national issues are currently attracting attention and debate. Encourage students to find out what the issues are, who is opposed and for different solutions. As an end to this activity, have the students clip relevant newspaper stories, editorials and letters to the editor, also have them write down any pertinent information from the radio and television, then choose two sides and debate the issues.
7. Invite a guest speaker from a special interest group to talk to your class about their objectives. Have them explain how they present their issues to government and if they met with victory or defeat.

Tying it All Together: By involving your students in these activities, you can increase their understanding of how our government works and increase their prospects of becoming responsible, effective citizens of the United States.

Grade Level: Appropriate for grades 6 - 9.

Goal: To give students a chance to visualize the step-by-step process of how an idea becomes a law and how involved the process is.

Objectives: Students will be able to:

1. list the 14 steps of a "bill to law"
2. explain the three actions the President may take
3. describe "override" the President’s veto
4. arrange the 14 steps on a poster.

Materials: simplified list of the steps of a bill, 18" X 24" paper, ruler, glue, colored paper, markers

Procedure:

1. Have students make a list of the 14 steps.
2. Using their textbook write out the three actions the President may take and explain each.
3. Describe the term "override" orally.
4. In pairs or individually have students decide on a motif or theme for their poster. Create a poster by arranging the motif or theme to illustrate the steps of a bill to become a law.

Tying it All Together:

1. Collect and then grade completed posters. (They will need more time than one class period)
2. Make a stack of cards with one step written on each card. Give one card to 14 different students. Have students arrange themselves in the proper order.
3. Evaluate by giving students a "step" and having them give the next one.

Court of Appeals Welcomes You

The Kansas Court of Appeals, a ten-member, intermediate appellate court sits in three-judge panels throughout the state. Every three weeks, hearings are conducted at four or five locations throughout the state. The Court of Appeals regularly sits in Wichita, Topeka, and Kansas City. Additionally, the court also sits at other locations throughout the state. The court is pleased to have students attend the hearings. The court will not be hearing oral arguments in December, 2000. The next oral arguments are scheduled for January 9 and 10, 2001. On those dates, court will be held in Olathe (Johnson County Courthouse), Topeka, and Wichita. During the remainder of the school year, the Court of Appeals will be in session on the following dates: February 6 and 7, 2001, March 13 and 14, 2001, April 10 and 11, 2001, and May 15 and 16, 2001.

The Kansas Supreme Court is the highest court in the state, and includes seven members. Students also are welcome at oral arguments before the Supreme Court. The high court holds its hearings only in Topeka. During this school year, the Supreme Court will be hearing oral arguments during the weeks beginning December 4, 2000, January 22, 2001, March 5, 2001, April 16, 2000, and May 29, 2001.