Dozens of Redhawk legislators made their way down to Duncanville High School early Saturday morning for the annual district Youth and Government Conference which saw hundreds of students from around the Dallas area gathering to compete in legislative, judicial, state affairs, and media competitions.

Students participate through crafting their own bills in the months leading up to the conference and debate bills in student committees.

“My bill was about creating harsher punishments for sexual assault perpetrators,” junior and first time delegate Shivani Desai said. “I thought it was interesting and insightful to debate each other’s bills because it made it feel like we could really make progress on these things in the future as our generation gets closer to adulthood. I learned that it’s possible to have differing opinions on certain things and still discuss them in a friendly and civil manner.”

Several officers from the campus’ club participated by serving as chairs and clerks of committees. The school had its largest showing ever with approximately 40 Redhawks turning out and 6 winning the Distinguished Delegate award, meaning that they were the one of the two best performing legislators in their committee.

“I felt like we had a really good showing,” campus YG vice president junior Sam Mills said. “We had a few awards from our delegation including a few first timers people so I’m really pleased and I’m really proud.”

In addition to the weekly Thursday meeting hosted by the YG officers on campus, they host meetings open to other local schools on Wednesdays nights at the Plano Family YMCA.

“We’re going to be taking a break really once we get back from Thanksgiving,” Mills said. “We’re going to start explaining to everybody what state entails some of the things that you need to be prepared for. We’re not exactly sure how we’re going to choose our state qualifiers, but we’ll keep practicing.”