By Tim Leeds
Vicki Proctor's business law class at Havre High School has turned a project into a benefit for the community, the publication "You've Been Scammed."
The class researched, wrote and had the school printing service print up the book on scams and fraud in Montana, then distributed them to interested organizations in town Tuesday.
The class had a unit on consumer protection, Proctor said, which included scams and frauds. She said she likes to occasionally do some hands-on learning like this to give the students a break from the traditional classroom environment.
"We found out a lot of useful information that will help us, help the community," Tiffany Daughenbaugh, a junior in the class, said.
Kari Hoover, also a junior, said the book was a good project for them. She said it will help people not get scammed, and allow the class to spread their knowledge, to help the elderly and the young people in the area.
Breyon Briese, a senior, said they learned while researching the material that they learned a lot from the research the different groups of the class did. One thing they learned was that scam and fraud artists heavily target the elderly, " so we're trying to help with that," she said.
Proctor said they did quite a lot of research, traditionally as well as on the Internet and by calling organizations, such as in the Montana state government. She said one thing they found was that Montana is the number two state hit by scams and fraud, second only to Hawaii.
"We are a target," she said.
She said they wanted to present the book to an audience, so they contacted people to see if they would be interested. Proctor said there were many who were, including the Eagles Manor, Northern Montana Long Term Care, Montana State University-Northern, area hotels, and more.
They printed 204 of the books, but could print many more if they had the money to do so, Proctor said. She said they had requests for more than 700 of the books.
Briese said the unit did make a nice break from the traditional classroom.
"It gave us something different to do in class," she said. " instead of the same old worksheets and workbooks."
