ST. PAUL — A group of Owatonna Public School students and their teacher are now part of Minnesota history.

On Thursday, just as Jen Hansen, teacher at Willow Creek Intermediate School, and six of her former sixth grade students squeezed into the elevator at the Minnesota State Office Building, a familiar face joined the crowd.

“I know exactly why you guys are here,” said State Capitol Commissioner for the Department of Administration, Matt Massman, to the Owatonna group.

Massman wasn’t the only one.

Several camera crews from Twin Cities TV stations, state politicians and members of the Minnesota Historical Society were all at the State Capitol Thursday to hear from those former Willow Creekers, now seventh graders in junior high.

For Gabe Adams, Lauren Bateman, Chloe Beede, Katie Ihrke, Dominic Nelson and Tad Johnson, they can all now say that they’ve not only testified in front of the Minnesota House of Representatives, but created a bill that could soon become law.

The bill was all sparked by the inquiry of Beede, who, while in Mrs. Hansen’s Minnesota Studies class last December, discovered that six of the Minnesota State Capitol workers died during construction between the years of 1887 to 1905.

—Kim Hyatt, Owatonna People’s Press