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On Nov. 3-5, seven students from Troup High traveled to the Capitol in Atlanta to participate in the 80th annual Georgia Youth Assembly.

The event is a three-day mock legislature where students go to the Capitol to learn the legislative process and what it’s like to be a lawmaker. The Tigers were able to discuss issues with state administrators, elected officials and other students from across the state.

During the assembly, students were allowed to submit their own bills as part of the mock legislative process. Around 1000 bills were submitted from students across Georgia, and the top 100 were taken to the floor of the House or Senate for full debate and vote. 

One of the bills submitted by Troup students was debated, and it was passed by their fellow Georgia students.

The approved bill submitted by Troup County students was inspired by Mary Joy Moosman and Hadilee Arnold, who were thrown from a vehicle during a crash on Hogansville Road in May. The crash took Moosman’s life and seriously injured Arnold.

THS students Sophie Billingslea and Ann Muhr represented the bill as part of the mock Senate and House of Representatives. 

“Our teacher wrote it,” Billingslea said. “It was to wear seat belts in the back seat. I was one of the ones that went up and represented the bill. So basically, just talk about it and influence everybody to vote for it.”

“Sophie represented it in the Senate and got it passed there. Then we swapped and did the bills from the Senate in the House,” Muhr said. “I was in the house, and it got brought to my committee, so I volunteered to represent it there.”

The students said there was debate and opposition to the bill, but it did manage to pass.

Some of the less serious bills were approved by a landslide, though.

Muhr said there was one bill to make gambling a state holiday and turn the Capitol into a casino for a day.

“It won by a landslide. So many people voted for it. I was one of them. There were a lot of serious ones, though. You could tell there were a lot of people taking it very seriously,” Muhr said.

Jada Menefield said it felt good to represent Troup High.

“It felt really good because the schools they were there, you could tell they were high caliber. They knew what they were doing,” Menefield said. “So the fact that we got chosen to represent Troup and be on the same level as those students, it felt really good.” 

The event was a fun learning experience for all of the students involved.

“I feel like I learned a lot about how the government works in Georgia,” Muhr said. “Getting to pretend to do it was a different level of learning about it.”

“It really got put into perspective. How the bill goes from house to Senate and how it starts at a committee, and how we discussed it and it would work higher up in the state government,” Menefield said.

“I loved it. It wasn’t exactly what I expected it to be. I thought it was going to be more actual debating, But I really loved it, and I hope that we get to do it again because it was really fun, and I felt like I learned a lot,” Muhr said.