Politics & Government
Edmonds Students Successfully Lobby for Civil Rights Bill
Sen. Chase introduces bill on King Holiday after grandson asks her to do so
A team of students from Madrona K-8 school in Edmonds have been instrumental in passing a new bill honoring the civil right’s movement in state schools. The bill, SB 5174, was passed by the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee.
“We’ve never done this before,” said Committee Chair Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell.
The proposal was the brainchild of the MLK Group, a team of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders at Madrona. The group studied the civil rights movement in preparation for an assembly celebrating the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday last month. They were inspired to share what they learned and wanted to encourage others to understand the history of civil rights in the U.S.
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One of the students, Chase Simerka, decided to ask Sen. Maralyn Chase, D-Edmonds, his grandmother and legislative representative, to help the group create a law encouraging learning about civil rights history. “This idea belongs to the whole group,” said Simerka.
In a joint statement, the MLK Group said: “We think we are lucky that we live in this time, and we have freedoms here. We think it is important to learn about places and times that don’t have the freedoms we share. If people don’t learn about the Civil Rights movement, people could take it for granted. This might lead to the same things happening again. We also learned that kids can make a difference, and we want other kids to know they can too.”
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On Jan. 17, the date of this year's Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Sen. Chase introduced SB 5174. The bill was granted a hearing, and the students were able to participate through a live conference call and video presentation. When the bill was voted on in committee, the class erupted into cheers.
“I am very proud of the work this group of kids has done, meeting during recesses and after school time to work on this project,” said Judi MacRae, the group’s adviser.
The bill now goes to the Senate floor for a vote. The students plan to travel to Olympia to lobby for final passage of their bill.
For more information, contact MLK Group adviser Judi Macramé at 425-431-2918.
