Class is Now in Session: Students in Legal Studies Program Get to Play Out What They’Ve Learned.
By Jason B. Gumer, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Jan. 25–WEST PALM BEACH — A packed crowd glares at the guilty-looking defendant as she slouches in the corner next to her sharply dressed attorneys.
Rookie prosecutors have prepared their case for weeks. The investigators sit confidently in the front row of the gallery. The judge calls the courtroom to order and the murder case of the State of Florida vs. Jamie Olsen is in session.
Witnesses are sworn in, the news cameras are rolling and the trial gets under way with opening statements.
Oh, and everyone involved with the case — the lawyers, guards, jury, defendant, investigators and witnesses — they are all teenagers.
This courtroom is in Palm Beach Lakes High School, and the players are students in the school’s Center for Legal Studies. The juniors and seniors participating in the mock trial have been preparing for the experience throughout their high school careers. Students from Glades Central High’s Institute for Criminal Justice are on hand to serve as investigators, jurors and police officers.
But don’t call this trial make-believe. The lawyers will surely object.
“We have a murder based on a reporter who printed the picture of an undercover police officer in the newspaper, which the prosecution and state will argue was published to bring about the officer’s murder,” said instructor Phillip Stillman, who acted as the judge.
Almost 200 students participate in the Palm Beach Lakes’ magnet pre-law program. In the four-year program, the students take classes on a variety of legal topics.
“It is a very rigorous program and we are going to be much more prepared for law school,” said senior Uriah Ellis, 17.
Their classroom is a perfectly re-created courtroom, complete with jury box, witness stand, judge’s bench and gallery.
“This practical experience is the culmination of what they have learned, and it is the best way to complete their studies and demonstrate their abilities,” Stillman said. “For the Belle Glade students who want to be police officers, it is extremely important to know what they have to prove, how prepared they have to be, and how important documentation is for trial.”
Palm Beach Lakes student Lisa Archer, 17, of West Palm Beach, was a member of the defense team. She delivered an uncompromising and harsh cross-examination on an uncooperative witness played by Glades Central’s Duval Grandison, 15, and poked big holes in the prosecution’s case.
“Law has always intrigued me,” Archer said. “I know that I am really argumentative. I can debate and I can be really stubborn, and I find that this particular field of law is something where I can highlight these characteristics and turn them into something positive.”
Jason B. Gumer can be reached at jgumer@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6621.
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Copyright (c) 2007, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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