Middle school students from Grant Ranch School, Grant Middle School, and Denver School of the Arts will participate Friday, March 8 in the We The People Hearing on the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The event will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Trinity United Methodist Church, 1820 Broadway, in downtown Denver.

This event was rescheduled from Friday, March 1 due to last week's snowstorm.

The event, implemented in cooperation with the U.S. Congressional District No. 1 Office, six simultaneous Congressional Hearings covering a variety of topics about the United States government, including "What Experiences Shaped The Founder's Thinking About Government" and "What Happened At The Philadelphia Convention?" and "How Does The Constitution Protect Our Basic Rights?"

The hearing format is designed to allow students to "testify" before a panel of judges. Students demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of constitutional principles and have opportunities to evaluate, take, and defend positions on relevant historical and contemporary issues.

Many of the judges will be students from East High School's Constitutional Scholars team.

The primary goal of We the People... The Citizen and the Constitution is to promote civic competence and responsibility among the nation's elementary and secondary students. What makes the program so successful is the design of its instructional program, including its innovative culminating activity.

The event is sponsored by the Center for Civic Education (Calabasas, California) as part of the School Violence Prevention Demonstration Project.

For more information, please call Neal Deason, 720-423-3632.