IU law students teach fifth graders about law through hands-on mock trial - The Herald-Times
People in the courtroom waited anxiously while the jury deliberated.
Donna Bernens-Kinkead’s fifth-grade class at University Elementary School spent Friday afternoon in the mini trial room at Indiana University's law school, making arguments, listening to witness testimony and cross-examining characters from "How to Train Your Dragon," including Hiccup Horrendous, Fishlegs and twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut.
Small Fry, 15, was being sued for letting the dragons loose at the Isle of Berk Dragon Training Facility, which led to the dragons burning the property down. Sven, the facility's owner and the plaintiff in the civil suit, was requesting $20,000 for repairs and $5,000 for lodging.
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The jury shuffled back in as the room quieted.
“Have you reached a verdict?” asked the “judge,” IU professor Shana Wallace. “What say you?”
“The verdict is guilty,” the foreperson replied.
Although most of the mock trial proceeded as a real trial would, what happened next was something only fifth graders would think to do. The plaintiff's representatives, who had acted professionally until the verdict, could no longer contain their excitement — they bounced up and down in their seats, cheering and fist bumping each other.
IU law, Monroe County schools partnership program
Bernens-Kinkead’s class is one of about 20 fifth-grade classes in Monroe County experiencing hands-on learning about the legal system through a partnership with the IU Maurer School of Law's Outreach for Legal Literacy Program.
The OLL program, which runs from October through April, is run by law students who go into classrooms to teach students about government, law and how to be an engaged citizen.
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Fifth graders are required to learn about these subjects as part of Indiana’s curriculum standards, Bernens-Kinkead said. But the OLL program engages the students far more than reading out of a textbook would.
“They make it alive for the kids,” she said. “I find it really valuable because my whole thing is that you have to be a participant in government. You can’t just sit back and let it happen.”
OLL has implemented this program in schools since 1994. The fall semester is spent learning basic terminology and processes, and the spring semester focuses on preparing for the mock trial, OLL President Devin Dunkley said.
Practicing for the trial helps students develop skills that will carry them through life, such as public speaking and critical thinking skills, Dunkley said.
How are cases selected?
One of the most important cases students learn about is U.S. Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines, which resulted from students wearing black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War. The landmark decision defined First Amendment rights in public schools.
“It’s just showing them that these are also students who did something in their community to make a difference and that they can make a difference, too,” Dunkley said.
Each year’s case aligns with what kids are interested in at the time, Bernens-Kinkead said. In the past, cases have involved characters from the book "Alice in Wonderland," the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes" and Harry Potter books and films, along with minions from the film "Despicable Me."
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This year’s case taught students about an attractive nuisance, which is a condition on a landowner’s property that could attract people and put them in danger — such as a barn full of dragons.
Scripts for each member of the court are written by OLL leaders, but students can go off script as much as they’d like — which they did, Bernens-Kinkead said.
Bernens-Kinkead’s students also got a chance to ask professor Wallace their burning questions. What happens if you get called for jury duty? Is law school separate from regular college? What happens if you say things to the court that aren’t true? Are courtrooms usually bigger than this?
In return, Wallace had a question for the students: How many of you think you might want to be a lawyer when you grow up?
Over a third of the students raised their hands.
“That is exciting to see, although most of them think all lawyers do is argue,” Bernens-Kinkead said. “I try to explain to them … that it’s not as glamorous as you think, and no one gets to just argue all the time.”
Although the students won’t actually have to seriously consider their career paths for a while, it’s important to let them know they can do anything they set their minds to, Dunkley said.
“We want to be role models,” said Dunkley, who is in her third year of law school. “I didn’t know any lawyers as a kid. I really didn’t even think about going to law school until college, because I just had never met a lawyer or been to a law school. So it’s that kind of opportunity for them to see, ‘Oh, wow, this is something that I could do, too.’”
Contact Herald-Times reporter Christine Stephenson at [email protected].
source: https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/news/education/2022/04/06/iu-law-school-students-teachers-mccsc-class-calendar-study-schedule/7230680001/
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