Shaler Area high school students participated in the law contest “There Ought To Be A Law” sponsored by state representative Lindsay Powell. “Outta Be A Law” is a contest for any 7th – 12th grade students. Shaler Area high school students assumed the role of state legislators and had to write a two-page paper on their law proposal. Out of 60 submissions from Shaler Area students, five winners were awarded with honor citations: Mason Bosco, Noah Demchsin, Ayden Sansotta, Grabriela Navas, and Paityn Greygor.
Mrs. Dina Donini, Shaler Area’s Civics and Government teacher, talked about how Shaler Area got involved in the competition.
“Mr. Hiserodt got an email and put it out to the department and asked if anyone would be interested in doing it. Since I teach the government class it seemed to make sense. Everybody in my government class did it as an assignment,” Mrs. Donini said.
Passing laws can be a lengthy process, however this contest just wanted simple propositions for new laws.
“The judges just wanted ideas so there weren’t a lot of specifics regarding numbers or words that needed to be included or anything like that,” Mrs. Donini said, “It was something that you think should be a law that would benefit society. We did a little research, we spread it out over a few days and just wrote a short essay explaining what they thought should be a law and why.”
Students had to consider many factors when writing their law out. They had to think about their target audience and the capacity of the state government. One of Mrs. Donini’s favorite proposals was regarding artificial intelligence.
“I liked laws that held kids accountable, (Noah Demchisn) did one on AI which I liked. It wasn’t just that AI is terrible and you can never use it, it was a responsible use of AI, so using technology as a tool to better yourself instead of just using it to find the easy way out,” she said. “There were a lot of good ones but I think that was the most school specific that I liked.”
Demchsin developed a law that would slow down the use of artificial intelligence. He believes slowing down the use of AI will help prevent job displacement in the future and preserving people’s privacy will help to solve some of the security concerns that go along with the use of AI.
Bosco presented a law that would offer financial and technological programs in high school curriculums. He proposed classes that would help students learn about budgeting, understanding credit, managing debt, understanding cybersecurity, and digital communication. Bosco believes these programs will help develop a stronger and more independent generation.
Sansotta came up with the idea to ban energy drinks for people under the age of eighteen. He argued that energy drinks lead to heart palpitations and anxiety. Banning these drinks would help prevent these health risks for teenagers. Teachers and parents would also likely see better performances in school from their children.
Navas suggested mandated metal detectors at the entrance of all state mandated Pennsylvania schools. Her use of data and facts challenged the need to have a safe environment for children to learn in, while gun violence is on the rise.
Greygor proposed a law that will help promote women’s health, education, and economic independence. She had a really well written argument that provided a strong foundation for improvements with the economic and social opportunities for women.
“It was a really interesting and different project that I actually had a lot of fun doing. Normally, class projects are pretty boring but this project was different. We had a few days to research and then we wrote a short summary explaining our law. It wasn’t just one of those projects that you had to write paper after paper. It felt like our laws were actually being taken into consideration,” Greygor said. “Then, we got to meet with the state representative, Lindsay Powell which was really exciting. We talked about the laws we created and we also talked about the current state of the government. I had a good time doing this competition and I would definitely do it again.”
