It’s back to school for many students this week, and for us here at the ACLU of Maine that means the planning is officially underway for our annual Bill of Rights Student Conferences. Last year we taught more than 600 students at the conferences, with 21 schools attending from 10 different counties across the state.
This fall we’ll be hosting three separate conferences in Belfast, Farmington, and Portland, all at no cost to any of the schools that attend. While we frequently visit classrooms throughout the year, these conferences offer a unique opportunity for students to learn about these important civil liberties issues and discuss them with other young people from around the state – all at the instruction of our volunteer lawyers, staff members, and expert presenters.
Students attend three different workshops over the course of the day, with a wide range of topics presented including free speech, privacy rights, equal protection and due process. We put a special emphasis on issues affecting young people, so in addition to thinking about civil liberties in the abstract, students also get to learn about what rights they currently have in school and how those rights have evolved over time.
These are the dates for the 2012 Bill of Rights Student Conferences:
- FARMINGTON: October 24th at the University of Farmington
- PORTLAND: October 31st at the University of Southern Maine
- BELFAST: November 14th at the Hutchinson
- Center
All
schools are welcome to attend the conferences, and no class is too small to come. If you are a student, teacher, parent, or just an interested citizen, we’d be happy to talk to you about the conferences and sign you up to attend the one nearest to your school. To find out more information, feel free to contact me anytime at 207-774-5444 or