Laughlin Air Force Base Legal Office and Val Verde County Bar Association Contact: Captain Lucy H. Carrillo Assistant Staff Judge Advocate Laughlin Air Force Base Legal Office 561 Liberty Drive, Suite 1 Laughlin AFB, TX 78843 Email: LucyCarillo@Laughlin.af.mil Reaching All the Kids on Law Day Activity Summary: We had a wide-ranging program that reached almost all the school-age children in Del Rio, Texas. Del Rio has a population of just over 30,000 people. We made contact with every school in the district, including all homeschoolers on base. We had a poster and essay contest open to all students, and received more than 200 entries. Many attorneys went out to the schools and spoke to classrooms on a variety of topics, and read books to younger grades. In all, we visited 28 classroom and reached 756 students. Several judges presided over mock trials for their courtrooms and also at the high school. Several local attorneys from different areas of practice coached the students for the mock trials. Over 150 students participated. One judge had high school students in her courtroom hearing witnesses, evidence, and then judging a motion to suppress. Over 80 students attended. We had a Law Day Banquet, where we honored the winners of the contest. Activity Narrative: This is the first year the Val Verde County Bar Association and the Laughlin AFB Legal Office worked together on Law Day. We were very excited to be doing it, and we sponsored numerous outreach activities to the students of Del Rio, Texas, during the month of April, some of which went on well into May. Del Rio, Texas, is a small town of approximately 30,000 people, on the border of Texas and Mexico. We have a fairly significant low-income population, and it had been our goal to reach as many students as we possibly could. To this end, we conducted a myriad of activities in the hopes that every student would be reached in some manner. We had several mock trials for high school, junior high, and elementary school children, both at the schools and in courtrooms. Local attorneys from different areas of practice coached the students for these mock trials by teaching them how to try a case. One attorney had also previously coached a mock trial team this year to winning second place in their regional competition. We had high school students go to the federal magistrate's courtroom to hear witnesses and evidence, and then they judged a motion to suppress. We also had many attorneys go out to the schools and speak to classrooms on a variety of topics, such as child support issues (as a way to enhance awareness of parenting responsibilities). One high school teacher requested a JAG to come out and speak to three of his high school classes on being an Air Force attorney. Teachers could also request an attorney to go out to the schools and read books to grades kindergarten through fifth. These attorneys read and then spoke a little to the children and answered their questions. There was also a poster contest open to all students and an essay contest open to high school students. We had an overwhelming response to both contests, and because we received entries from all ages for the essay contest, we decided to have two more categories of winners (divided by grades). The theme of the poster contest was Celebrate Your Freedom. The theme of the essay contest was Should Children be Tried as Adults? The judging took place in the Laughlin AFB courtroom, and the judges were Air Force members, the Val Verde County sheriff, and the director of the on-base daycare. The first-place winner of each contest received a $200 cash prize (except the younger grade categories received a Sony playstation), second place winners received a $50 gift certificate redeemable at the mall, and third place winners received a $25 gift certificate. All first place winners also received a Texas state flag flown over the capitol and certificate from Representative Pete Gallego, and all winners (including runners up) received a gift bag containing award ribbons, restaurant certificates, and numerous other gifts. The first place winners were also invited to a luncheon with the Del Rio Rotary Club on Law Day, held at the San Felipe Country Club. All of the posters were hung in the federal courthouse for display. All of the prize money and prizes were donated. All of these activities culminated on May 2001, at the Law Day Banquet, which was held at the Officer's Club on Laughlin AFB. We raised money to be able to honor the first place winners of the contest, and we paid for dinner for them, their parents, and their teachers. The evening was an overwhelming success. During cocktail hour we had the outstanding Del Rio High School mariachi band play, and after dinner, rather than have a keynote speaker, the essay winners read their award winning essays. Attendees included: the Mayor of Del Rio; the county attorney; the city attorney; school principals and teachers; both local and federal judges; public defenders; the U.S. attorneys; city council members; many local attorneys, and almost all of the commanders from base. This demonstrates the support we had in the community, and the successful cooperation between the base and civilian attorneys, and because of this, we were able to reach over 90% of the students in Del Rio. Sample Programs Home | By Audience | By Location | By Sponsoring Organization