The House of Representatives is the largest chamber of the MGS general
assembly, with over 64 delegates. For the 2022 mock trial at Missouri's capital
building, several bills were proposed, adopted, and some denied. Although it may have been a shaky start, each delegate was able to learn from this experience in ways they
could not have without the new environment. The MGS Representatives also had the honor of being aided by some of Missouri's own State Representatives. These included Chuck Basye, Sara Walsh, Willard Haley, Peggy McGaugh, Ann Kelley, and Ed Lewis.
Kayden Dye from Anthony City in Truman County was the speaker for the
House of Representatives and led the mock trial session. "The mock trial was very fun. There are some little tweaks we can work on, but I feel it went well and that we all agreed on some of the ideas that these delegates had that, I think, will do great in the future at Girls State," said Dye.
Six bills were proposed at the mock trial and the five that got adopted by the
House included a wide variety of topics. Some included that students who are
homeschooled should get the same opportunity as students in public schools when
getting into MGS. One brought up how they should make water bottles an optional or
mandatory item on the Checklist for Girls State. Some talked about having easy and
free access to period products at MGS, and another argued for further food labeling
in the cafeteria. Another representative brought a rarer subject to the table about
expanding the education roles in the cities and more.
The bill that did not get passed was a topic many suggest should not
have been as controversial as it was. Representative Danielle Burg, from Covington
City presented the argument in Bill #12 that MGS should have the opportunity to
participate in sports during Governmental Activities, and that delegates should be
allowed to wear spaghetti straps outside. The bill had more inquiries and discussions
than any other topic, which made deciding what to do more challenging.
Some suggested that in order to have more equality between MGS and MBS,
adding sports as an activity was necessary. One of the counterarguments was that
both programs have very different schedules, and while MBS might be able to have
sports, they could also be missing out on something else that only MGS gets to do.
Spaghetti straps were almost not even up for debate because of the dress code, but a couple of delegates agreed that with the exhausting heat, having the option of spaghetti
straps would have been preferred.
After over 30 minutes of tense yet formal debate over the issue, the "Nays"
ruled the majority. This ended the mock trial, but our Representatives still have much
more to decide through the rest of the week.