RIVERVIEW, Fla. — At Sumner High School in Hillsborough County, students are proposing and writing laws and amendments for the entire state of Florida in the "Ought to Be a Law" program.
"Really it's a great opportunity because us as students get to talk about things in our lives that we feel might be missing in Florida," said Sumner High junior Olivia Mallatte
The idea is simple: they meet as a group and decide what they think should be a law. They then draft and propose a change to lawmakers in Tallahassee with the help of their sponsor, Mr. Tony Pirotta.
"High school kids have a lot of passion, and they're driven. and when they get an idea and they know that it's the right thing to do,um, they're gonna find the backing they need to get things accomplished," said Pirotta
This year, the group focused on changes to Florida’s two‑party consent law. Currently, Florida requires all parties to a phone conversation to consent to a recording, which the students say can be a barrier in domestic-violence cases.
"We thought like this should be something that should already be happening like this is like a common sense bill," said junior Jesmia Marrero.
While some of the students are interested in this kind of work, others are finding a way to channel their experience into trying to make real change at just 17 years old.
"When I was growing up, uh, my mom was married to this man, and he like kind of used like psychological and emotional ways to, you know, silence my family, I wanna make sure that even victims who like have already gone out of that situation know that more people won't be put in that due to this law," said senior Bailey Turner.
Find more information on this program here.
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