Cheney's Patrick Purviance - senate page

Cheney High School freshman Patrick Purviance departed for a week as a Washington State Senate page not knowing what to expect.

After five days traversing the grounds of the state's capital in Olympia he has a better idea of how government works and an insight into the future.

Purviance took part in the second week of the annual Legislative Page School program, Jan. 19-23. The program provides an opportunity for up to 35 students, ages 14 – 16, to serve as pages assisting legislators in the state House and Senate.

Purviance duties included running notes and packages for Sixth District Sen. Michael Baumgartner and his staff. Since Purviance's week occurred early in the current legislative session, most of this work took place during committee meetings.

Purviance did get to sit in on two floor sessions, one lasting all of 15 minutes and another a couple hours long.

"There weren't many senators there, but it was still a very cool experience," he said.

Purviance experienced a key component of representative government - the right of citizens to assemble peaceably and petition their government with their grievances. Purviance said one day during lunch they were walking by the Capitol Building and watched as a crowd of anti-abortion protesters took part in a rally that included speeches from several legislators.

He also said he saw rallies by motorcyclists regarding state helmet laws, and a Muslim group. And he said he recognized a group of representative from the Cheney School District who were in town that week.

"It was very interesting to see that side of it as well," Purviance said.

Part of Page School is just that - going to school. Purviance said they had classroom sessions for two hours each day. Learning how government functions prepared them for their assignment, which was to team up in pairs to create a mock bill on a current topic before the Legislature, and present that in a mock committee hearing to their classmates, who rule either "Do Pass" or "Do Not Pass" on the proposed legislation.

According to the Jan. 23 edition of the school's newsletter, The Weekly Page, senators Purviance and Paxton Moon introduced Senate Bill 6789 addressing the death penalty. Purviance said the bill was about ways to make the death penalty process more efficient in order to save costs, money that could then be put towards other things such as K-12 education.

Purviance said the bill failed, teaching him a valuable lesson about communication. While the bill was about efficiency, his classmates believed it was about the death penalty itself.

"They thought we were supporting it, and didn't realize we were just trying to make it more efficient," Purviance said.

Purviance was one of two pages from Eastern Washington, the other being from Spokane Valley. Pages who don't live in the Olympia area must find their own lodging, and Purviance said he was lucky to be able to stay with a family friend.

Purviance enjoyed his weeklong experience as a legislative page, saying it was difficult to say good-bye, at the end of the week to his new friends. Through social media he has stayed in contact with several of them.

And while he now has a better understanding of how government functions, he also has a key insight into his future.

"I don't want to go into politics," Purviance said.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].