Newport-Mesa students travel to Sacramento

Sixty-five Newport-Mesa Unified School District students are helping

take over the state government as part of the California YMCA Model

Legislature and Court program.

The students from Corona del Mar, Costa Mesa, Estancia and Newport

Harbor high schools have been training since September. They arrived in

Sacramento on Thursday and will use all of the state capital facilities

to run their mock government during their four-day coup.

They will also interview Gov. Gray Davis, Secretary of State Bill

Jones and Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer.

Newport-Mesa students hold several key leadership positions in the

Model Legislatures. Delegation President Elizabeth Anderson, a senior at

Newport Harbor High, will be the governor’s chief of staff.

Mari Parks, a junior at Corona del Mar High, will serve as a Supreme

Court justice.