Oklahoma CareerTech Delivers

The vision of Oklahoma FFA is to provide the next generation of leaders who will change the world, and Arapaho-Butler High School FFA member Katie Edelen embodies that vision.

May 12, 2023, was a big day for Edelen. The high school senior walked across the stage to receive her diploma just hours after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed her Orange Alert bill into law.

While her friends were lounging by the pool or sleeping in last summer, Edelen was working on an original piece of legislation that would later become House Bill 1546.

The bill, drafted by Edelen as part of a Farm Bureau summer camp, would notify residents about escaped inmates in their area. It is a very personal issue for Edelen, whose aunt, Jamie Allen, was abducted by two escaped inmates in 2006.

Allen survived the abduction, but her niece recalls hearing the horror story many times growing up. If her aunt had known the inmates were at large that day, the traumatic event might have been avoided.

Edelen was excited when she heard the Orange Alert bill received the governor’s approval.

“Maybe this law can save a life,” she said.

The passage of the new law gave Edelen’s aunt even more reason to celebrate her niece’s high school accomplishments.

“Katie Sue has brought a ray of sunshine to a dark situation,” Allen said.

By the time HB1546 takes effect Nov. 1, Edelen will be a freshman at Northern Oklahoma College, where she plans to play basketball. 

Thousands of high school students visit the Oklahoma state Capitol each year to learn about state government, including the process of how a bill becomes a law. But very few of those students take their civics lesson as far as FFA member Katie Sue Edelen did.

The Arapaho-Butler High School senior is waiting to hear if a bill she drafted as part of last year’s Capitol Camp, sponsored by Oklahoma Farm Bureau, will become law. Edelen was among a select group of high school juniors and seniors from FFA and 4-H who had the opportunity to write and discuss a piece of legislation about an issue that was important to them.

She created legislation that would create a statewide system known as Orange Alert, which would notify residents if an inmate escapes from a correctional facility within 40 miles of their location. Those opting to receive the notifications would hear an alarm on their cell phones, similar to the Amber Alert and Silver Alert systems.

“An alert would be sent out to everyone in a certain mile radius of the prison,” Edelen said, “so they would be able to take necessary precautions.”

Edelen’s draft caught the attention of Rep. Anthony Moore, R-Clinton, who agreed to sponsor House Bill 1546, which passed unanimously last week. The bill is now being considered by the Senate, authored by Kingfisher Republican Sen. Darcy Jech.

Edelen has a personal interest in the passage of the bill. In 2006, Edelen’s aunt was abducted from her home by two escapees from the Anadarko jail. If the Orange Alert notification system had existed at the time of her abduction, it might have helped Edelen’s family avoid the nightmare that ensued.

Although Edelen was a child at the time, she grew up hearing stories of her aunt’s harrowing escape from her captors. Edelen’s grandmother, Penny Berry, said she is grateful her daughter survived the incident, but her family was forever changed by the dramatic event.

“Katie Sue was a baby,” Berry said. “But she always heard our warnings about how to stay safe and the importance of being aware of your surroundings.”

Rep. Moore said residents who have a prison nearby deserve to be notified immediately if their safety is in danger from an escaped prisoner.

If the bill is approved by the Senate, the bill will then go to the governor for his signature.

About Oklahoma CareerTech’s student organizations

Oklahoma CareerTech has seven co-curricular student organizations, including FFA, FCCLA, BPA, DECA, TSA, HOSA and SkillsUSA. Membership in these organizations hit an all-time high this year, with 97,385 members.