BATON ROUGE – Lawmakers took the day off Friday, so students, along with their parents and teachers, took over the Louisiana State Capitol building.

It was all part of a new event that Governor John Bel Edwards called, “Take our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.” And that is exactly what state worker Terri Ricks did.

“Bringing my children to work and see the Great State of Louisiana at work, they’re the future,” Ricks said. “If they can see how it works now, they can have a dream to be a part of the solution as we go forward.”

The youngsters got a chance to tour the building, including the Senate floor and the House of Representatives. But they found other, more obscure facts about the Capitol more interesting.

“We went into the hall where Huey Long was shot and there was a column with a bullet hole in it and people got to stick their finger in it,” fifth grader Ava Ricks said.

But the kids weren’t the only ones learning how their state government works. Some parents were learning right along with their kids.

“They learned a lot today and so did I,” Ricks said. “About the history of this building and what we do. It was more fun than anything else to be behind the Senate President’s desk.”

To top off the day, the students got a chance to get absentee notes for being out of school today, signed by Gov. Edwards himself.