HIGHTSTOWN, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — The AP
Government class at Hightstown High School in New Jersey is on pins and needles
as they wait for President Donald Trump to sign a bill into law. The students
spent 3 1/2 years working to get the bill passed.
Social Studies teacher Stuart Wexler is managing
anxiety among students.
"We do have a little bit of a time limit on our
hands," he said.
The students have just a few hours left to get
President Donald Trump's attention and they're hard at work "from tweeting
at Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Sean Hannity," he said.
In 2015, the students decided to help families of
racially charged hate crimes from the civil rights era get answers. So they
drafted, got support and lobbied to pass the Civil Rights Cold Case Records
Collections Act, a bill that creates an independent review board to review,
unseal and unredact decades-old case files.
"There are so many crimes that are
unsolved," said Oslene Johnson, a graduate of Hightstown High.
She was part of the original class that drafted the
bill in 2015.
The next school year, they got Indiana Congressman
Bobby Rush to introduce the bill. Then over the years, with the help of media
coverage, they gained support. Last year, Senator Doug Jones introduced the
bill in the Senate. Both houses passed the bill with overwhelming bipartisan
support. Now, all they need is President Trump's signature.
"We just go down the list and call them one at
a time," said Cate Yang, a Hightstown senior who has skipped classes (with
permission) alongside other students to help call, tweet and email everyone
they could think of to ensure the Cold Case Act becomes law.
If the president signs the bill, Wexler says, it'll
be a lesson for all.
"If you mobilize and are persistent, you can
get things done in this country still," Wexler said.
He says if President Donald Trump fails to sign
the Cold Case Act Tuesday, it expires via "pocket veto" and the
students will have to start all over.
He did sign it.
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