DEBATING THEIR FUTURE. High school sibs, Aaron and Chelle McMonigle, center and right, wrap presents outside Santa’s House at Westwood Village to raise money for their Youth and Government field trip to Olympia where they will debate their bills in a mock session.
Siblings Aaron, Chelle, and Sean McMonigle were stationed outside the Westwood Village Santa House Saturday, Dec. 19. The teens, Alki residents, were busy wrapping presents for shoppers while asking for donations for the annual spring Youth and Government fieldtrip to Olympia. The organization is a high school legislature program through the YMCA. Students write a bill, debate, and work the floors of the Capitol building while they conduct a mock legislation.
“A lot of bills that show up by the students are actual bills hitting the Capital,” said Sean, who graduated high school last year after participating in the organization. “We had a mock legislature and ran the whole thing, from the governor to the house and senate reps. I loved the debating aspect, putting my two cents in.”
“We all write our own bills,” said Aaron, a junior in the Running Start program at South Seattle Community College. “My bill I am working on is about physician-assisted suicide. A spouse doesn’t have to tell the other spouse the physician is assisting him to die. I feel if you are the patient choosing this option you should be obligated to tell the spouse.”
He and his sister participate in the Normandy Park Delegation with about 18 others.
“My bill will try to replace police car windshields and windows with bullet-proof glass,” said Chelle, a West Seattle High School freshman. “I got involved in Youth in Government because my brothers did.”
For more information go to: www.youthandgovernment.org
