Earlier this month we hosted our third Bill of Rights student conference of the fall. It was a tremendous amount of fun for us – as our work with youth always is – and a great chance to talk to students about the issues we care strongly about and work on every day. Our conferences consist of a series of workshop sessions where students learn from ACLU of Maine staffers, board members, and volunteer lawyers. Each lesson covers a different topic, including free speech, search and seizure, equal protection, and religious liberty. We put a special emphasis on issues affecting students so they can see that the Bill of Rights really does affect them in their everyday lives.
All told, we had 21 different schools attend our student conferences, bringing more than 500 students for the all-day events. We’re proud to reach this many young people, but it’s only the start as far as we’re concerned. With the school year not even half over, we plan to do a lot more educating in the months to come.
All throughout the rest of the school year we’ll be traveling around the state, speaking in classrooms and auditoriums on many of the same issues we taught about at the student conferences. Many teachers will have us present the same workshops that were at the conferences, which we’re happy to do, while others will have us teach on a different civil liberties topic that fits with the curriculum already being taught in their class.
No matter where your school is in the state of Maine, we’ll come and teach there. All of our education programming is entirely free to schools and we’ll even bring pocket Constitutions for every student in the class! We think it’s imperative to educate the next generation about the Bill of Rights and the protections given to them under the Constitution, and we're willing to drive long hours to make it happen.
If you’re interested in having someone from the ACLU of Maine lead a lesson at your school, contact me at [email protected] or 207-774-5444 and I’d be happy to set it up. We have diverse curriculum on a number of different issues that pertain to students, and we’re always willing to work with teachers to come up with new presentations if something specific is desired.
Every student deserves to know their rights!
