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Human Rights Commission Minutes <br />May 20, 2015 — Draft Minutes <br />Page 6 of 10 <br />226 Commissioner Christiansen offered to assist. <br />227 <br />228 Chair Groff stated Commissioner Slade, Commissioner Bachhuber, and Commissioner <br />229 Christiansen would make up the Committee working on organizing these community <br />230 discussions. <br />231 <br />232 <br />233 <br />234 <br />235 <br />236 <br />237 <br />238 <br />239 <br />240 <br />241 <br />242 <br />243 <br />244 <br />245 <br />246 <br />247 <br />248 <br />249 <br />250 <br />f. Essay Contest Information and Discussion of Possible Changes <br />Chair Groff reviewed the proposed changes to the HRC Essay Contest. <br />Commissioner Christiansen stated she agreed with the comments sent by Councilmember <br />McGehee. She stated students had found the required references to be too many source <br />documents, but it is important for students to know how to look at these types of documents and <br />requiring two source documents is a good standard. She suggested requiring only one of the <br />source documents be a human rights document such as the US Constitution or the US Bill of <br />Rights and the other one must be a solid reference, not Wikipedia ar Google. She asked what <br />grades currently participate in the contest. <br />Commissioner Bachhuber stated the public middle school in Roseville is 7th and 8th grade and <br />they also send the information to the elementary schools far 6th grade to participate. <br />Chair Groff stated they have not gotten any participants from 6r" grade because teachers felt the <br />students did not have the writing experience necessary to write an essay at that age. <br />251 Commissioner Christiansen stated the HRC needed to work with the teachers to get them <br />252 involved and help publicizing the contest. She suggested the 6�" grade teachers introduce the <br />253 students to the essay. This would start preparing them for participating in 7th grade. <br />254 <br />255 <br />256 <br />257 <br />258 <br />259 <br />260 <br />261 <br />262 <br />263 <br />264 <br />265 <br />266 <br />267 <br />268 <br />Commissioner Bachhuber clarified that the essay contest is not part of the curriculum and the <br />schools have a lot to do with the required curriculum. They let students know that the Essay <br />Contest exists but they do not have to devote classroom time to it. They have the established <br />curriculum they have to teach. <br />Ms. Collins stated some teachers did make the essay extra credit but this excludes those kids that <br />do not have access to computers at home. <br />Commissioner Singleton asked if the problem was with the current form or with the time line for <br />the essay. <br />Commissioner Thao stated the Commission originally began this discussion to open up the <br />contest to other forms of expression, to be more inclusive. <br />