5th Graders Wind Up Creating Legal Protection for Mythical Creature

Teaching children about the inner workings of American government can be a mighty hassle, particularly as the duller aspects of our three-branch system have a tendency to numb the mind of even the most attentive among us..adult or not.

But a group of fifth graders in Washington State were able to take their civic lesson to the next level, affecting change in the real world and having a hoot while they were at it.

As a result of a rather unique project, a class of fifth graders in Washington State successfully lobbied their local government to declare their county a “Sasquatch protection and refuge area.” The crytpozoological civics lesson was reportedly the work of students at Lincoln Elementary School in the city of Holquiam. According to their teacher, Andrea Andrews, the youngsters were initially tasked with researching the famed cryptid and determining “if Bigfoot was real and hadn’t been discovered yet, or that it was just a big bear and people had misidentified it.” This sparked something of a healthy debate within the class with opinions on the issue largely being split down the middle.

The project was a major and surprising success.

Upon coming to a consensus, the class put together a proposal which argued that there is evidence supporting “the notion that Sasquatch exists” and, since sightings are scant at best, it is “likely an endangered species” that needs protection. Much to the subsequent surprise of the students, when resolution 2022-037 came before the Grays Harbor County Board of Commissioners at a meeting last month, officials opted to unanimously pass the proposal and decreed that the county is now a “Sasquatch protection and refuge area.” Stressing to her students that they had “changed the world in a little way” via their Bigfoot project, Andrews hopes that they will carry the civics lesson “into the rest of their lives.”

No word yet as to whether to not the class will be working on a sea serpent fishing license next.