Taylor Daily Press Law Day
Jason Hennington; [email protected]; May 2, 2013 12:03 am
Students at T H. Johnson Elementary celebrated Law Day by participating in a poster competition across Williamson County.
Students from Jennifer Hicks’ Project Based Learning class, Katie Kurtin and Easton Lawrence won first and second place for their posters.
“I was really excited,” Hicks said. “I don’t know how many schools participated, but I thought we’ll put them in anyway.”
Although her class produced two Winners, Hicks felt the class had a number of contenders.
“I thought we had a lot of good ones,” she said. “But we’re excited two of them got it.”
The members of the Williamson County Bar Association, President Lisa Richardson and Director David Oliver presented the Winners with gift cards as prizes. Kurtin received $50 gift card while Easton received a $25 gift card.
“This year’s theme was equality, and they had to create a poster that started with ‘I have one voice I will use it to…’,” Richardson said. “They were to celebrate how we’ve strived for equality in various ways.”
The theme was chosen in part to celebrate the 150th year of the Emancipation Proclamation.
“The contest is a statewide contest and is sponsored by the State Bar of Texas,” Oliver said. “They’ve invited local bar associations to host local contest, and that’s what we did with Williamson County.”
Oliver added that the placing winners in the local contests moved on to the statewide competition.
“We were allowed to submit our first place winners in each category to the state to compete against all the other counties and organizations around the state,” he said. “We didn’t have a statewide winner but we were able to recognize the first and second place winners here.”
The winning posters were chosen by a committee, and later announced.
“The entries were totally random, anonymous, nobody knew the names and nobody knew where the kids came from,” Richardson said. “It was a committee of five, and the first and second place winners in the third through fifth grade came from T.H. Johnson.”
Richardson and Oliver were happy to bring the competition to T.H. Johnson and have the support of the teachers and students.
“It really is exciting to try to bring in more civics to the schools and help out the teachers where we can, and give the kids something fun to do,” Richardson said.
Oliver was impressed with the creativity and variety of the posters entered in the competition.
“We got to see all the posters and it was really interesting to see how different were their [students] views on how they could use their voice for equality,” he said. “So we got to recognize them, and it was our pleasure.”
Law Day is celebrated nationally on May 1 to recognize the importance of the rule of law in American society. Law Day underscores how law and the legal process contribute to the freedoms that all Americans share. Throughout the nation, local bar associations, courts, schools, and community organizations are encouraged to hold Law Day programs to help people understand how law keeps us safe and how our legal system strives to achieve justice.
Hicks explained that Project Based Learning is a class where students work collaborative on various projects.
“In preparation for the corporate business world. They are expecting people to come together as a team and pull different pieces of it together and rely on each other,” she said.
Hicks was excited to see something positive for the students.
“All the kids at T. H. Johnson are good kids, and it’s good to see something good happen to a few of them and being noticed for their hard work.”