Throughout the duration of the first semester, Civics students have been preparing for the largest event in the civics curriculum — the Full Session. The session took place on January 6 in the SHS auditorium, providing an opportunity for students to put to the test their public speaking and debate skills in hope of passing a bill of their own creation. 

“Civics is a semester-long class for the American government,” said Jesse Perez, social studies teacher. “During the process, students are exploring their own political ideology and identity. Then they create bills.”

Students spend months collaborating in small groups to research, review, and revise bills created based on their interests. 

“I always listened to speeches, and they were really good,” said Vivian Rich, student and President for the civics session. “It was nice to see what people cared about.”

 In their full day session, the students held the power to decide which of those proposals would pass through a democratic process.  

“[Students had to] support two [bills], and they have to pick two to oppose,” Perez said. “Then they had to write speeches on those bills that they supported and opposed; and so what took place on January 6 was that process — debate and then vote.”

Earlier in the school year, Half Session (also known as the Committee Hearings) was held in the library media center. Students were introduced on how to propose, debate, and vote on bills in smaller committee groups. The bills that passed then moved to the full session.

“[The full session] is much more structured and much more prepared because you have individual speakers who’ve prepared long speeches for these bills in favor and opposition, as opposed to more impromptu debate in the half session,” said Anita Bendre, junior and Civics Speaker of the House for first semester.

In order to be passed, bills must win votes by a simple majority and then be approved by the president. These bills covered a reality of topics, including addressing prevalent, real world issues. 

“[In my opinion] the most notable bill was the Exit bill, which provides easy exits for victims of domestic violence, because it was very important and had lots of arguments on both sides,” said Katie Swenson, civics student.

On the other hand, many students debated more fun and lighthearted bills on issues they cared about. For example, the Cheese Cave Caucus (CCC) sought to reclaim a Wisconsin classic and boost the cheese-related economy. 

“[One] of the really fun bills that we had was the Cheese Cave Bill, which was to move all of the cheese that’s currently being stored in a cheese cave in Missouri into Wisconsin,” Perez said. “[…] our most intense debate was actually about that bill.”

In addition to the debate, the school invites local politicians to attend the full session each year. This year it was District 9 representative Priscilla Prado. 

“[Prado] came and spoke to the kids and talked to them about her political journey,” Perez said. “She stayed around to listen to them, […] and she said [the experience] was actually pretty accurate to what she gets to do.”

This year’s full session differed from previous years in regards to content and time span. 

“In my junior year, there were a lot of Roe v. Wade [bills],” Rich said. “This year, there were issues like trans healthcare and domestic violence safety, which I didn’t see any of last year, but both are really important. It’s nice to see how the cultural zeitgeist changes throughout the years.”

Even though only 12 bills were debated, the full session lasted for the entire school day, as opposed to the previous year only lasting half of the day. This demonstrated how slow the legislation process can be, which was one of Bendre’s main takeaways from the full session.

“It’s frustrating, of course, to see how slow legislation is being passed,” Bendre said. “It’s almost necessary to be this slow because you want to have a very democratic process.”

These debates were an opportunity for students to practice effectively communicating their ideas to their peers, especially regarding diversity in opinions. 

“Being respectful to people who disagree with you and being able to have a conversation […] applies to all areas of life, just being able to properly communicate your opinions and properly talk to people who have differing opinions than you,” Bendre said.