Wednesday, June 8th, I had the honor of participating in a truly exceptional program provided to a group of special needs students by a truly exceptional teacher, Alison Markley, at the Tahoma High School.

This group of students decided at the beginning of the school year that they would like to participate in their own version of ‘We The People,’ including a judged Congressional Hearing. The focus of their study and the basis for the hearing was to answer the question, “How does the Constitution protect our basic rights?'” The SAIL program (Successful Academic and Independent Life Skills) has never done anything like this so the students studied hard for the entire year and Wednesday they demonstrated their knowledge of the Constitution addressing five initial questions which were then followed up with six questions from the judges.

We read in the papers every year how successful the THS We The People program does in state and national competitions. This group of students wanted to show what they could do. Wednesday they demonstrated the depth of their learning to three judges, Marty Barber, Kara Runge, and me, student friends, parents and others. I can honestly say they were inspiring. This was not an easy task for either the students or the teachers and we are blessed to have a teacher like Alison Markley and the support staff who encouraged and supported this endeavor. I was blessed that I volunteered to be involved with this first ever program. Great job students! The great young people who did such a good job included, Alex G., Dakota L., Austin M., Isaiah M., Justin O., Christopher O., Kyler P. Emmanuel M., Gabe T., and Hanna W.

Linda Johnson

Maple Valley City Council