Bad Driving at Chamberlain High inspired this year’s winning bill in a student contest.

By Mike Wells
The Tampa Tribune

Tampa - Standing before a panel of state lawmakers Saturday, high school sophomore T.J. Mouse proposed legislation that would require students to take a driver’s education course to graduate.

He has seen too many “stupid teenager mistakes” in his school’s parking lat not to care about this issue, he said.

“A lot of guys think they can drive 75 mph and still maintain control of a car,” said Mouse, who attends Chamberlain High School. “I’ve even received text messages from friends who I know were driving, and I messaged them back to put their phones away.”

Mouse was among 15 Hillsborough County high school students at the fourth annual Ought To Be A Law student bill drafting competition held at the school district’s downtown administration building.

T. J. Mouse Photo from Newspaper

Each student had three minutes to present a bill propposal, plus time to answer questions from state lawmakers on the panel - Rep. Kevin Ambler, R-Lutz, Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, and Rep Ed Homan, R-Tampa.

By the end of the day, Mouse had won the bill competition, having impressed the lawmakers with a handout sheet of crash statistics The report showed tht about 6,000 teenage drivers die in crashes caused by their traffic errors each year, and another 300,000 are injured.

Mouse said he realizes some of his peers might not support having a mandatory course but he doesn’t think that would hinder passage of the bill.

“Other than teens, I don’t see any opposition to it.” Mouse said. “And they can’t voite.”

His proposal has a chance at becoming a real law when Ambler and Crist sponsor it as a bill during the 2008 legislative session in Tallahassee.

In Writing their bills, the students were asked to be mindful of the current limitation on funding because the next state budget likely will have severe cuts.

Mouse said his bill could reduce insurance rates statewide. Florida is one of a milority of states that do not have such a law, he said.

Lawmakers Offer Feedback

Saturday’s event was about learning the process of passing a bill into law and why it is important to debate each proposal’s merits and short-comings, the three lawmakers said.

“There is an upside to making it harad to passing a law,” Homan said.

The panelists critiqued the proposals and how they were presented, something Crist said was vital to the process.

“It is important that they’re not just coming out of this raw,” he said. “They’ve done this in front of their peers and instructors. We’re trying to give them positive, instructive feedback.”

The program is the first of its kind in the country and is ambler’s brainchild. He created it in 2004 as a venue to showcase student ideas for change and to help them participate in the lawmaking process.

Students Focus On Lunch, FCAT

This year’s proposals included allowing more students to be eligible for free lunches, mandating testing for drivers older than 65, requiring a nurse on each school campus, making the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test available in other languages, and requiring orientations for people who put loved ones in nursing homes.

During the past legislative session, a Hillsborough High School senior’s proposal won. House Bill 1161, titled “The High School to Business Career Enhancement Act,” passed with a majority of votes in the House and Senate and was signed into law by Gov. Charlie Crist. The law was conceived by Hillsborough graduate Jonathan Porat and provides tax breaks to businesses that offer student internships.

The next step for Mouse’s proposal is for a group of students to be selected to further research, draft and present the bill to councils and committees in Tallahassee. That should happen within the next few weeks, said Amber Smith, Ambler’s district aide.