Nearly 600 Sumner County high school students will participate Oct. 5 in a state Supreme Court program designed to educate young Tennesseans about the judicial branch of government.
Students and their teachers from nine schools, along with home-schooled students, will attend a special Supreme Court session at the Sumner County General Sessions Court Building in Gallatin where justices will hear oral arguments in three actual cases. Following oral arguments, students will meet for question and answer sessions with attorneys who presented each side in their cases.
All participating students and teachers also will join the Supreme Court for lunch in Ramsey Hall at First United Methodist Church in Gallatin. During lunch and a brief program, students will be seated at tables with the five Supreme Court justices, local judges and attorneys, city, county and school officials.
Schools participating in SCALES - an acronym for the Supreme Court Advancing Legal Education for Students – are College Heights Christian Academy, Hendersonville Christian Academy, Highland Academy, Portland High School, Westmoreland High School, Hendersonville High School, White House High School, Beech High School and Gallatin High School.
Teachers whose classes are involved in the project attended a three-hour professional development session in Gallatin to prepare for the SCALES Program. Tennessee Court of Appeals Judge Patricia J. Cottrell of Nashville discussed the state and federal court systems, answered questions and presented an overview of the cases to be argued when students attend SCALES. Teachers also were provided with notebooks of materials to use in their classrooms, including suggested activities, and SCALES Project handbooks for each student. Chancellor Tom Gray is coordinating the project in the 18th Judicial District.
"The Tennessee Supreme Court believes that knowledge and understanding of the judicial branch of government are essential to good citizenship,” Chief Justice Riley Anderson said. “The SCALES Project is designed to educate young participants about the system they will inherit. The interaction we have with the students at lunch and throughout the day also renews our faith that our nation’s future is in good hands.”
Local judges and attorneys met with participating teachers at the professional development session to schedule classroom visits to review the cases and issues to be considered by the Supreme Court. After justices rule in the cases, copies of the court's opinions will be provided to the classes.
"The SCALES Project is important because it creates a partnership between the judiciary, the Bar and schools to promote a better understanding of the judicial branch of government," the chief justice said. "We hope that teachers will use the materials to make judicial education a continuing part of their curriculum."
The Sumner County event will be the first SCALES Project presided over by Justice Frank F. Drowota, III, who was elected by the court to succeed Anderson as chief justice. Anderson will remain on the court, but stepped down as chief justice effective Sept. 1.
Issues in the cases students will hear include whether a defendant is criminally responsible when another participant in a drag race or a passenger is killed; whether escape from a police car constitutes an escape from a penal institution; and whether a sentencing enhancement factor involving a probation violation can be applied when the probation violation is part of a juvenile record.
Including SCALES in the 18th Judicial District, more than 9,000 Tennessee students across the state have taken part in the project since the Supreme Court initiated it in 1995.