Today was another “day” at Gering High School, most specifically today was County Government Day.  This day was a little different from Senior Service Day last week as it did not involve the entire school. In fact, it involved just 26 juniors and myself.

Every year, Scottsbluff County organizes their County Government Day. Most of the school districts within Scottsbluff and Banner Counties send either junior or senior students to this event. The number of students that can go is limited to 26 so we pick which students get to go.

This year, I got to organize this event, which was pretty straight forward. I just had to decide who was going to go, what County Government departments  they were going to represent, and I insisted that students dress appropriately for the event. We then walked down to the County Government Building (its only about a 5-10 minute walk from the school) and the students went into a room upstairs to be introduced to the day’s events. After that, students were broken up into groups to learn about the areas of county government to which they had been assigned, such as District Attorney, Sheriff, County Commissioners, and so on.

While the students were in their groups, we teachers got to go to McDonald’s to chat and drink coffee, which was not a bad way to spend my morning. I got to meet Social Studies teachers from around the area and we had some interesting conversations.

At lunch time, we got to have lunch in a local church. We heard a few speeches and got to see how to properly fold an American flag. After lunch, students got to see some demonstrations by local law enforcement and then a  mock trial was held. The students were asked their opinions on the trial and whether a conviction based on what they had observed would have stood up in court. I was pleased to see that most students thought the case in question would be thrown out because it was based on an illegal search.

Once the day was over, we walked back to school, but I let the students have some time play on the swings, at the park. We got back to school just in time for the bell to ring. Overall, it was a pretty good day. I got to get out of the classroom and spend part of my day with other teachers. I do hope I get the chance to do this again next year. I am pretty sure that I will.