wow, was this ever buried…took me all this time to find…thanks.

Ohio’s 9th District Court of Appeals brought their courtroom to the classroom on Wednesday at Stow-Munroe Falls High School to hear two cases.

PROBABLY ANY OTHER LEAD WOULD HAVE WORKED BETTER THAN WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE…

WHEN THREE JUDGES TOOK OVER THE STOW-M H S AUDITORIUM WEDNESDAY, THE CROWD WAS QUIETER THAN PROBABLY ANY RECENT AUDIENCE.

OR.

? TRY IT. DON’T BE AFRAID TO TRY SOMETHING. THE WORSE THING THAT COULD HAPPEN IS A BORING COPY EDITOR WILL SWITCH IT BACK TO WWWWWH.KEEP THE AUDIENCE IN MIND, NOT THE EDITOR, NOR THE NEWSWRITING TEXT.

Judges Clair Dickinson, Donna Carr and Carla Moore presided over the makeshift courtroom in the auditorium. The crowd consisted of senior government students, the speech and debate teams and a law class.

Social Studies teacher Trina Poole helped bring the Court of Appeals into the high school and thought it was a great experience for the students.

“The goal in education is to create real-life experiences for students,” Poole said.

“Not everything they need to learn is done in a classroom, so I wanted to be able to create things that they normally might not be able to see. So far the reaction has been very positive. The students are very interested in the cases and can’t wait to hear what the rulings are.

PROBABLY SHOULD RE-SOURCE SAID…SO THAT WE KNOW WE ARE STILL HEARING FROM POOLE…CAN USE COMMA DESCRIPTIVES, SAID POOLE, WHO HAS BEEN TEACHING THE CLASSES SINCE 1919.

“Hopefully when we get back to the classroom we can stem from that and go off in different directions when it comes to classroom learning,” she added.

Presiding Judge Dickinson reiterated Poole’s statements, and went on to further explain why the Court of Appeals administers this program.

“It’s an outreach that the court does that helps students better understand the government and courts,” Dickinson said.

“And also so that if they ever come to court they’ll know a little more about what’s going on. We enjoy coming to schools and illustrating what democracy is about. The students always seem interested and always have good questions.”

Senior Alyssa Knight was one of the students in attendance and said that her experience was amazing.

“I’ve never been in on a court case,” Knight said. “I didn’t know it was going to be so nerve-wracking for the attorneys pleading the cases. I’m amazed at the amount of information they have to know about everything.”

Senior Ashley James also thought the presentation was fascinating and also gave credit to the judges for what they do.

“It would be really hard to be a judge,” James said. “Both sides had really good points.”

Superintendent Russ Jones commended the students for their attentiveness and gave more reasoning as to why this was such an important lesson for students.

“I think this helps them see that judges are real people and that they have a sense of humor,” Jones said. “It also helps give insight into what a judge does. After the courtroom it’s not out to the golf course.”

Judge Moore echoed Jones’ sentiments about how judges are real people too.

“Sometimes we’ll be on the bench and something is said that’s funny,” Moore said. “We’re not robots. Obviously we don’t want to make light of something that is serious relating to any event that’s tragic or anything, but in the course of a trial things are said that are funny and we just laugh.”

Judge Carr recanted a story about how, in a rush, she once forgot to wear her robe when hearing a plea. The woman who was entering her plea had to ask if it was legally binding since Carr wasn’t wearing in traditional garb. (IN TRADITIONAL GARB… WASN’T WEARING ROBES…OR IN TRADITIONAL GARB. ONE OR THE OTHER.)

During a lull in questioning, Carr also joked with the students.

“You don’t have to be bashful,” Carr said to the students. “We only bite the attorneys.”

During the question-and-answer session between cases, a few students asked about the judges’ robes and one asked about the gavel.

“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever had to use the gavel,” Dickinson said.

PROBABLY MY MISS, BUT WHAT WERE THE CASES? WHY NOT SAY? WERE YOU PROHIBITED FROM SAYING? SERIOUS FLAW IN REPORTING/WRITING, KN.

Right after, he banged his gavel twice which made the crowd of students erupt in applause.