How to Write a Bill | Paradyse Oakley | TEDxCrenshaw
[Music] Second semester of sixth grade, my dad was incarcerated. And for two years, I went through the process of missing school to go to trial, trying to understand my feelings. So I would write them out to interpret what I was going through and missing my father. I remember the visits um two in particular. One was when we would go for an hour and a half just to get there in a hot sun and almost got denied because our birth certificates were damaged because of going so often Saturday and Sunday to see him and they were um damaged. So that was like oh we're waiting in line for an hour and a half and possibly can't see him. The other would be playing the 50-50 chance of seeing him waiting in line and possibly not being able to see him because of so many visitors trying to see their loved ones in prison. In 10th grade, I went to a summer workshop on writing, and I was able to meet a professor who was writing a novel at the time that was identical to my life story of having someone I loved incarcerated. And he told me about two programs. He said, "Project what?" And it's in Oakland. So, I was like, "Can't go to Oakland, so I won't." and he told me about POP's pain of the prison system, which is a high school program that gives students the opportunity to express themselves through art by taking pictures, rapping on songs, and writing writing their experiences of someone who they have incarcerated, any type of abuse they've felt during their um whole life. So, 9th through 12th graders. After that, I launched it at my school in November and youth and government with the YMCA was just starting and I was very passionate about having a voice for students who have incarcerated family members or who suffered from abuse. So, I told my delegation, I was like, "We should write a bill to provide social emotional counseling for high school students dealing with any kind of issues." and we had a vote. We had two other bills. One was pets for vets, which would provide veterans the opportunity to own a pet to um decrease their stress. And another one which was really good for the environment would be recycling to have grocery stores uh a place to donate um recyclables. And my bill won. So, we did research and we were able to find out that if you or children who who have a loved one incarcerated, you have bill of rights. You have the right to be informed when your parent is incarcerated. You have the right to have counseling and someone to talk to while you're going through your dad or your mother's incarceration. So, we were able to do um research for about three months. And when the time was coming for us to go to Sacramento um and sit in the chambers of the assembly in the Senate, I was the bill sponsor. So, I got up in front of the crowd and I told them my story and I said, "We need this. We need social emotional counseling for high school students, not only for um incarceration." because in committee we said, "Oh, that's a little like too narrow." So, we opened it up because in the book it's immigration, it's abuse, is trauma, and all these other things that students in high school face and they don't express themselves because of the stigma and the shame that they have. So, we wanted to give them the opportunity to express themselves through writing, through anything. So, it got passed in my um my house and it went to So, it got passed in gold assembly and it went to go senate and luckily I met this guy on the elevator and I was he was in gold senate. I was trying to find somebody for like the whole 3 days. I couldn't find anyone. So I'm on the elevator and I'm like, "You're in gold simmit." Because we wear badges. And he's like, "Yes." I'm like, "Would you sponsor my bill?" He said, "Sure. What is it?" So I gave him an elevator pitch of the bill. And I was like, and luckily when he went to his next committee, it was the first bill and he got it passed. So it was great. Thanks, And then after that, because youth in government, it's a high school program that gives high school students the opportunity to play roles of our officials. So we have a lieutenant governor, which he he makes the budget for the whole delegation. So he has a he's like education, everything, transportation, what all we need to focus our money on. And he said, I was talking to him. I was like, could you sign my bill? He said, "What is it?" And I was like telling him everything. So I was He was like, "Yeah, when it when it comes to my desk, I will sign it." And I was like, "Did you sign it yet?" And then he said, "Yes, it came by." And he signed my bill. And he said that he would um all the bills that were signed in the whole youth and government for 2015 2016, it would go to the lieutenant, well, the real governor, Jerry Brown. So that was pretty amazing. I'm still waiting to hear back about that. Um, also a couple of months ago, because it's the election season, um, my dad, he's incarcerated still, um, and he was telling us to, um, like watch out for the props and make sure that we're we're making the right decisions. So, I'm a, like I said, I'm a youth activist, so I make sure my friends go out and vote and sometimes I prep them on like the the um props. And I was just um telling them like, "You guys got to vote and make sure you guys read the props." And yeah, so that was really great. And oh, this is a picture of me, my sister Lacy, she's seven, and my middle sister Paris, and she's 12. And in this picture, me and my sister Paris, we haven't seen our dad in a whole year because he moved all the way up north, which was probably like a 8 hour drive. So, we were able to get with get on the bus, which gives students and families the opportunity to see their parents on Mother's Days and Father's Days, to spend the whole day, do arts and crafts, and not have a screen and a telephone to talk to you. you're able to touch your dad, hug your dad. And my sister Paris, because it's been a long time for her not to see her dad, she broke down in tears and crying. She was crying like so like so hard that it made me cry even though I didn't want to. Okay. But you have to express yourself. That's something I learned in pops, too. So, I was just crying and it was very good that cuz we don't talk about it a lot. we talk about it, but I usually just write my feelings and send him a letter of how I'm feeling. And it was really great for her to express herself because sometimes she doesn't write him, but we try our best. So, yes. And I want you guys to know that you guys have the ability to do the same thing that I've been doing, which is the process of writing a bill. If you guys don't like anything in your community or in your neighborhood or anything that you would like to change, if you guys are still in school, I don't know, um you have the opportunity to do that. The change is in your hands. If you see something, all you have to do is write it out. You guys can probably get in a group of four or five friends that you have and start an interest group which is a group of people who have the same like like want to change something and you guys can research it. See what educational code well what which code you would like to change and how would you like to see it changed and I will walk you guys through the process of writing a bill. The first step is coming up with an idea. So my idea was to have social emotional counseling available for high school students. The second step was research. So me and my group, we spent three months researching all um educational codes and they have educational codes for academics, which is counselors that make sure that you're on track in school, vocational, which make sure you go to college and are on track. But they don't have social emotional counseling for students to deal with their feelings. So, we thought that was something that was lacking in the educational code. It was an act because it was very new. It wasn't a resolution, which would be something that like you just made up off of anything. So, it was an act to amend the educational code. And fourth step would be to title the bill. And to title the bill, you won't give it any other name. You'll just put it as an act two and then finish the sentence. Um um step five preamble it would just be the body well not the body it would be like the clause whereas and amending it. Um step six is enacting or resolving a clause will be enacting which mean you would like to like when would you like to see it put in place? So we said immediately and we found out that it would only cost the taxpayers 21 cent to implement the program to um provide social emotional counseling. And step seven would be the body and the bill is broken down into one and then you can indent it and keep going what you would like to say. So it's very simple. And step eight is to get sponsors. So you guys have the opportunity to connect with your council members or just anyone that you know is in the public arena and have them have a lunchon with them and tell them why you're passionate about it and how do you see this being taken in place. And that's it.