Students in a Herriman high school shop class are helping build a rocking chair for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The project grew out of her September visit to Jordan School District, where she saw a chair made by shop teacher Steven Tanner and asked for one of her own.
A Chair That Caught a Justice's Eye
The chair Sotomayor saw was carved with the phrase “We the People.” It had been built roughly two years earlier by shop teacher Steven Tanner and placed in her green room during the district visit. She liked it enough to ask if she could have one of her own, according to KSL News.
Tanner took on the build with his students. The new chair is planned in white oak and maple, with “We the People” incorporated into its design, KSL reported.
Students Take On a Historic Build
Senior Morgan Burke is among the students working on the chair. The outlet describes Burke as someone who has long enjoyed working with her hands; the project gives her and her classmates an unusual opportunity to contribute to something intended for a Supreme Court justice.
Tanner said involving students in the build was an honor, KSL reported. The target is to finish the chair by Thanksgiving and then ship it to Washington, D.C.
Woodworking in Utah's CTE system
Utah's 2024-2025 CTE at-a-glance information reports 188,097 students enrolled in career and technical education courses, according to the Utah State Board of Education Career and Technical Education. The state's Manufacturing and Production Pathway lists beginning woodworking among its courses, intermediate woodworking as a concentrator option and advanced woodworking among completer options, according to the Utah State Board of Education. The pathway lists course options; the figures do not specify how many students take woodworking.
Where the Chair Will End Up
Sotomayor plans to put the chair outside her chambers, where members of the public will be able to see it and sit in it, according to Jordan School District's account cited by KSL. The planned public placement gives the students' work a destination beyond the shop classroom.
Sotomayor's visit to Jordan School District was also covered in a separate KSL.com report and highlighted by the Jordan Board of Education.
The chair is still being built in Herriman. When complete, it will carry the students' work from their shop class to a spot outside a Supreme Court justice's chambers.
