|
Design Lab students have their day in court
Cleveland Metropolitan School Distict’s Design Lab
students had a day in court this winter when their social
studies teacher Anthony Simeone took them to the Carl B. Stokes
U.S. Courthouse.
On the field trip, the sophomores toured the judge’s chambers and
observed the legal system in action. They witnessed Federal
Judge Dan Polster sentence two criminals, preside over a
naturalization ceremony and discuss First Amendment rights’
court cases with Common Pleas Judge Holly Gallagher and
Attorney Jim Satola.
The field trip was part of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar
Association’s 3Rs Program, which addresses “Rights, Responsibilities
and Realities.” Using a
real-world curriculum focused on the U.S. Constitution, the 3Rs
calls upon volunteers in the legal profession to work with 10th-grade
social studies classes. The goal is to improve understanding of
the law and U.S. Constitution, provide career counseling to
focus students on their potential beyond high school and improve
the number of minorities entering legal careers.
This is the fifth time Simeone has organized a field trip to
Judge Polster's courtroom. “Each group of students I’ve taken
always leaves the courthouse wanting more. Judge Polster
graciously allows them a firsthand look into the life of a
federal judge, taking the kids from the moving moments during a
naturalization ceremony through the difficult decisions he makes
when it comes to sentencing an individual. It really is an
emotional journey that the kids go on, all in the span of a few
hours.”
Simeone is planning a sixth trip for a group of 10th-graders
and some upperclassmen on Jan. 27 to Judge Gallagher’s Court of
Common Pleas courtroom.
Trips like these, he said, help his students gain respect for
legal professionals and the court system.
“The 3Rs Program highlights some of the key amendments in the
Bill of Rights that directly influence our actions on a daily
basis. A trip like this allows the students to see theory put
into practice,” he said. “It allows them to see how poor
decisions early in life can come back to haunt them later.”
Simeone hopes the trip is as much of an eye-opener for his
students as it is for him. “Since I’ve been doing these field
trips, it seems as if every defendant who is convicted didn’t
finish high school, turned to drugs and other vices at an early
age and had a series of mistakes that put him or her in the
hands of the court system early on.”
For more information on the 3Rs go to
http://www.clemetrobar.org/3Rs or
click here to watch an
introductory video to The 3Rs.
|
