The Kansas Legislature has this week off, so Rep. Tory Marie Arnberger is using her time to visit all of the schools in Great Bend.
On Monday, she went to Great Bend High School, where she graduated in 2011.
“I spoke to all of the government classes and we actually debated a bill,” she said.
Students were given a copy of House Bill 2010, which prohibits electronic devices from being held in a hand or up to the ear while driving. That bill passed out of committee in February but was stricken from the calendar on Feb. 23.
At GBHS, as in the House of Representatives, students argued the pros and cons of the proposed legislation. They agreed that using a phone while driving can be unsafe, but asked, “When do you stop regulating things?”
“We voted at the very end,” Arnberger said. Two classes voted against the bill, but one class voted to pass it after an especially good debater spoke in favor of it.
“We discussed what’s going on in Kansas and how I got where I am,” Arnberger said.
This time last year, she was a senior at Fort Hays State University, preparing to announce her candidacy for the Republican nomination for Representative of the state’s 112th District. She was elected in November.
At GBHS, Arnberger said, students talked about bills they are interested in or have studied in class.
“They were really interested in medical marijuana,” she said.
They also discussed House Bill 2016, known as Joey’s Law, which was passed by the Senate last week and is headed back to the House transportation committee after the break. The law is named after Joey Weber, who had autism, and was fatally shot by a Hays police sergeant last August. The proposed legislation would allow identification cards or vehicle placards similar to a handicap placard to indicate an individual with special needs.

Visiting elementary schools
On Tuesday Arnberger visited another Great Bend school she previously attended, Eisenhower Elementary.
Wednesday morning she visited Riley Elementary, where she read to several classes before having lunch with the students.
In Bonnie Ward’s third-grade classroom she read the book, “If I Were President,” by Catherine Stier.
“I’m super excited for our guest today,” Ward told the students. The children have been learning about government and good citizenship, so the visit from Arnberger was a timely one, she said.
Arnberger told the students that she works for their parents, and for them. “I represent the towns of Great Bend and Hoisington,” she said.
“A bill is an idea we want to become a law,” Arnberger told the third graders. She reads bills and thinks about how they would affect the 22,000 people in her district before casting her vote.
Stier’s book about a girl who imagines herself in the White House explains some of the duties of the presidency, and the fact that not everyone will agree with the decisions that the president makes. That is also true for Representatives, Arnberger told the students.

“That’s the hardest part of my job,” she said. “I can’t make everyone happy.”
Arnberger also sat in on school board meetings on Monday and Tuesday.