What’s more important in high school than preparing students for the real world? Formerly known as Model Legislature, Lincoln High School’s Civics & Government Club seeks to do just that after being reinstated by new social studies teacher John Donegan in the 2024-25 school year.
Under Donegan’s leadership, the club has met after school on Mondays to write bills that they would like to see written into Rhode Island law.
“It began months ago,” Donegan said, “at the beginning of the school year, with students thinking about what ideas and what concerns they have about society, politics, and government. It’s totally on them to identify an issue, research it, and write a piece of legislation that will address their concern. I’m here to support them and help them draft the legislation and prepare for the conference.”
Friday, March 13, served as “committee day” for students to meet in small groups at Barrington High School to go over the rules for the following day and to practice presenting bills. The next day, six students participated in the RI Youth and Government Conference by presenting their bills to students and voting on other student bills at the statehouse.
“There were around probably 80 to 100 students from high schools across the state,” Donegan said. “They were separated into the House or the Senate, and they got to actually sit in the desks in the Rhode Island House or the Rhode Island Senate, use the voting machines, use the microphones, and stand at the dais. They went through bill by bill. They presented it. It’s debated. It’s voted on.”
The conference was also open to club members who did not write a bill but wanted to read the other bills, participate in the debate, and vote.
Alex Lopes and Nick Healey, juniors in their second year of Civics & Government Club, coauthored a bill to increase the time that Rhode Islanders can apply for temporary disability and unemployment insurance from 30 to 40 weeks. Their bill passed unanimously, and most bills passed by a landslide, making it clear that the next generation of lawmakers agree on at least one thing: change.
LHS’s other bills were efforts to provide living quarters for the unhoused and limit what is allowed by animal testing laws.
“I’m really proud of our students,” Donegan said. “All three of the bills that we submitted as a delegation, that they wrote, that they worked hard on, got passed.”
There were several bills from other schools that stood out to Lopes. One required Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to keep their faces uncovered and include names and photos on badges, one enforced registration of all guns, and one mandated the National Collegiate Athletic Association to provide mental health support to all athletes.
While it is nerve-wracking to present the bills and answer technical questions about them, Lopes noted that “everyone is open-minded and kind” even when disagreeing about bills.
Donegan enjoyed learning about what is important to different communities around the state.
“There are bills that deal with very specific neighborhood issues,” Donegan said, “[such as] should a solar farm be able to go into this type of zoning? It’s an issue in Coventry or Exeter or West Greenwich, [while] in a municipality like Providence, that might not be at the top of their [list] when they’re drafting their legislation. You really do get an insight into what matters to people across the state, not just here in Lincoln.”
Any student can be a participant in the Civics and Government club, regardless of their politics, culture, and background.
“I’ve never met anyone from the program that was ever disrespectful or rude,” Lopes said. “I’ve made a lot of friends of different backgrounds and political beliefs, and I’m hoping that I can make more next year.”
Similarly, students of all career aspirations can join the club. For example, while Healey is a member of the Law & Public Safety CTE and hopes to pursue a career in politics, Lopes is enrolled in the Journalism & Media Communications CTE and plans to become a reporter.
“I am very interested in debate,” Lopes said, “and I love having opinions and public speaking. Through [the club] I’m bettering my skills and I can translate that and use it for journalism in the future.”
Donegan echoes the sentiment and encourages any student to join Civics & Government Club.
“At the end of the day, whether you want to go into law or medicine or a trade, every employer and every school wants people that can articulate their views effectively, that can think critically, that can write well, and that can work with others. This club helps with all of those skills.”
Now that the club has grown from three to six regular members and established itself at LHS, it has changed its name from Model Legislature to Civics and Government Club to reflect its goal to expand to introducing students to all areas of government.
So far, the club has announced that it will be holding elections for a leadership team to distribute responsibility between members and give students an opportunity to make the club whatever they want it to be. They also hope to organize field trips to the statehouse, courthouses, and other government buildings.
“We would love to get students the opportunity to just continue engaging in their civic responsibility and to have healthy conversations about the role that they can play in our government,” said Donegan.
