Teachers Trained in Judicial Process

On June 30th the MSBA Civic Education Committee welcomed 30 teachers to the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis to attend a teacher training entitled “A Teacher’s Guide to Making the Judicial System Real.” The goal of the day was to help teachers make the judicial system timely, relevant and engaging for students.

Attendees participated in a mock trial based loosely on a federal case recently heard en banc by the Third Circuit, J.S. v. Blue Mountain. The case is relevant to students’ lives because it involved a high school student who argued that her 1st Amendment speech rights were violated when she was suspended after making a fake MySpace page at home to mock her principal.

Teachers prepared by reviewing relevant case-law before participating in a simulated jury selection activity exercise where they benefited from the real-life voir dire experiences of MSBA volunteers. Terry Votel, then MSBA President-elect, spoke to the group over lunch about the importance of judicial impartiality, after which the teachers were able to use real courtrooms for their mock trials. The day came full circle when teachers participated in a Q & A with Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Dees, fresh off a favorable jury verdict in the trial teachers saw him close that morning.

The teacher training was made possible through a grant from the Education Minnesota Foundation for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and was well received by participants. The Civic Education Committee would like to give a special thanks to MSBA members Amy Bergquist, Jennifer Bloom, Andriel Dees and Anne Hoyt Taff for their tremendous effort in pulling this training off.