Teen Court: A National Movement
Student Courts
A Student Court in a Community Setting
Teen courts that handle only school referrals are receiving increasing attention from
educators who are looking for ways to improve students' citizenship skills and decrease
problematic behavior. Sometimes teen courts meet in schools but accept referrals from
community organizations, such as the county probation department, the juvenile court, the
police department, and the sheriff's office. More often, student courts accept only
referrals from within the school.
Student courts pose special challenges because of the complexity of creating new
programs in schools. The following are among the issues that make the creation of student
courts problematic:
- The fulfillment of state curriculum standards results in a very full schedule during
school hours.
- Scheduling time for court sessions before or after school creates logistical problems.
- Working with the relatively small population of students in a school (as compared to all
the students in a community setting) increases concern about confidentiality.
- The school administration's ultimate responsibility for discipline causes concern over
students' ability to accept a disciplinary role in a responsible manner.
Student courts are sometimes established to handle very limited types of offenses. One
student court handles only traffic offenses on the school grounds (such as parking lot
violations). Other student courts handle only truancy and smoking violations. Still others
address a wide variety of offenses including insubordination, minor theft of student
property, minor vandalism, fistfights, cheating, and loitering.
Student courts' membership varies greatly from school to school. For instance, members
of the jury in a trial model may be drawn from applicants throughout the student
population, from random selection among students in study hall, or from among trained
student court members. Likewise, student courts employing students as judges or peer
jurors may draw from applicants as diverse as the student body or may use only the
students specially trained as court officers, either as an extracurricular activity or as
members of a law class meeting throughout the semester. One middle school includes two
adults along with five students on each (peer jury model) panel of "justices."
The school structure has an influence on both the scheduling of student court sessions
and the types of sentences employed. Student court sessions may be scheduled at a variety
of times, such as during lunch, immediately after school, during class time (especially
when law class members are the officers of the court), or in the evening at a local
courthouse. While student courts use many of the same sentences as community-based teen
courts, they also include detentions, in-school suspensions, Saturday School attendance,
fines for parking violations, and tutoring. In addition, the community service options may
be limited to the school site
>>What are teen courts?
>>The Growth of Teen Courts
>>The Major Models
>>Steps for Implementing a Teen Court
>>Teen Courts and Law-Related Education
>>Delinquency Prevention; The Educational Role
>>Training
>>Profile: Salt Lake City's Peer Court
>>Student Courts
>>How Do Lawyers, Judges, and the Bar Support Teen
Courts?
>>Profile: A Lawyer's Inside View of Teen Court
>>Profile: The Wyoming Bar and Teen Court
>>Evaluation
>>Funding
>>Conclusion and References
>>Resources and Additional Information
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