The jurors reached a verdict. Their faces remained expressionless as the foreman stood and read the guilty verdict to the judge.
The defendant, a junior high school student, was ”convicted” of theft and resisting arrest. Her ”sentence” was 90 days, but she wasn`t going to jail. She was learning about the law in a classroom court, and so were the members of the jury, the defense attorney, the prosecuting attorney and a security guard witness. The judge, however, was a Kane County Circuit Court judge.
More than 2,000 Kane County 6th-, 7th- and 8th-grade pupils from 31 schools will learn the consequences of breaking the law when they participate in a jury trial of one of their classmates. One classmate is chosen by the judge to be the defendant, who is accused of stealing a candy bar and resisting arrest. Other pupils play the roles of lawyers, witnesses and jurors.
The judges and educators in Kane County, who are donating their time for the classes, hope the Law Related Education Program will deter youth crime. It is the first time the classes have been taught in the county. ”Of course, what we are working toward is their recognition of the impact that these acts will have on their future. And it will,” said Judge Melvin Dunn, one of the key people involved in organizing the program and a ”judge” in the trials.
The courtroom drama culminates two weeks of study during regular social studies class time.
The classes are being offered in response to a request made by Gov. James Thompson at a conference for educators, law enforcement officials and judges in November, 1984. He encouraged those present to begin law education programs.
Thompson, a former U.S. prosecutor, said at the conference that Illinois was one of 11 states chosen to participate in Law Related Education Programs funded by the U.S. government in selected school districts.
None of Kane County`s school districts receives the funding; the program is being offered there largely because of the time donated by educators, law enforcement personnel and the judges.
Dunn and 11 other Kane County judges have volunteered their time during lunch hours to preside over the trials for the students and to write the curriculum for the program. Fees for copying, mailing and secretarial duties have been absorbed by Chief Judge Marvin D. Dunn, who is not related to Judge Melvin Dunn.
”I was sufficiently impressed and enthused to start a program here,”
said Melvin Dunn about the Law Related Education Programs.
Because only 150 of the expected 2,000 pupils have participated in the program so far, it is hard to determine whether it has had any effect on juvenile delinquency. But he said the students` average score on a test on crime, police work, due process of law, the criminal justice system, juvenile courts and jails increased to 85 percent after the class. The average score was 49 percent before, he said.
