Ternisha Miles returned to Goshen Elementary School Wednesday after a “long, long time” and was there to help the students understand the importance of the laws of the land and also to bring recognition to Law Day, May 1.

Miles and John Hensley, assistants to the Attorney General of Alabama, told the students that they help prosecute those who break the law in an effort to maintain justice so that each citizen may enjoy the rights and privileges guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America.

Miles told the students that it is important and imperative that people learn how to conduct themselves in a civil society.

“Without laws, we would have chaos in the world,” Hensley said. “Laws make it possible for us to keep order. Each of us is equal under the law. Under the Constitution, we all have the same rights and responsibilities.”

Hensley quizzed the students on their “rights” and they named religion, speech and the right to bear arms.

Miles talked to the students about the Bill of Rights and the other rights guaranteed to them, including the right to assemble and the right to a trial by jury.

Miles and Hensley told the students that were times when not all Americans were granted equal rights, among them were females and people of different races.

“Imagine what it would be like not to have rights,” Hensley asked.

Fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King gave his historic “I Have a Dream” speech in which he expressed hope that one day all people would have the same rights, equal rights.

Miles told the students that the people of the United States are guaranteed those rights, but they must respect the rights and privileges the Constitution affords. Not to do so would be to jeopardize what it means to be a citizen of a free and independent nation.

“We can not jeopardize what it means to be a citizen of the United States of America,” she said.