Student Support Services: Law Related Education Programs

Mission

Law related education programs provide students from all districts and schools throughout Santa Cruz County with an opportunity to engage in law and justice education, community dynamics, leadership, critical thinking, public speaking skills and positive youth development. We strive to educate youth throughout the county about juvenile justice and law, while also reducing the incidence of juvenile delinquency.

Vision

To develop rights and responsibilities for youth as engaged citizens

Goal

To increase law related education projects through continual partnerships, application for grants and other resources, and establishment of creative funding avenues.

SCCOE's Superintendent's Vision and Goals

The law related education programs are in alignment with the SCCOE's Superintendent's Vision and Goals. They promote "innovative colaboration with districts, non-governmental organizations and public agencies to create safe and healthy school environments" (Goal 3.5). Mock Trial in particular is a strong platform for encouraging "arts activities, performances and recognition of Santa Cruz County's youth" (Goal 3.8). Together, the law related education programs provide increased education opportunities for students of diverse backgrounds, while simultaneously increasing the safety, responsibility, and citizenship of our students, communities, and schools.

Mock Trial

The Mock Trial program was created to help students acquire a working knowledge of our judicial system, develop their analytical abilities and communication skills, and gain an understanding of their obligations and responsibilities as participating members of our society. The program currently involves 36 California counties. Santa Cruz County has 8-10 schools that participate in the yearly competition.

Each year, the Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF) creates and produces a new set of Mock Trial materials based on an important issue facing America's youth. The materials include a hypothetical criminal case (including summaries of case law, witness statements, official exhibits, and simplified rules of evidence), lesson plans on the central issues in the case, and competition rules and guidelines. With the assistance of a teacher-sponsor and attorney coach, students analyze the case and prepare strategies and arguments for trial. They gain active experience working in teams, exchanging ideas, setting goals and examining issues, all while interacting with positive role models from their communities.

Mock Trial is coordinated by the Santa Cruz County Office of Education and is a working collaborative between many agencies: the educational community and participating schools; the legal community, including local attorneys, judges, trial lawyers association, and bar association; and the Superior Courts of California, Santa Cruz.

Mock Trial 2010/2011 News

February 12, 2011, 9:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., Round One
February 19, 2011, 9:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., Round Two
February 21, 2011, 9:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. - Semi-Finals and Final 3:00 p.m. Awards Ceremony

Read the Mock Trial 2010 Feature article here.

Read a feature about the 2009 Mock Trial program.

The 2009 Santa Cruz County Mock Trial semi-final and final competition took place on Monday February 16th, 2009. Aptos High, Soquel High, Harbor High and Santa Cruz High competed in the semi-final competition. Harbor High and Santa Cruz High proceeded to the final round. Santa Cruz High won the 2009 Santa Cruz County Mock Trial competition. Students from all participating county teams received awards and accolades from the volunteer attorney scorers and judges.

Santa Cruz High will be going to the 2009 state competition on March 20-22nd in Riverside County. Being that Mock Trial is a volunteer program, the Santa Cruz County Office of Education (SCCOE) is accepting donations to assist the winning team in travel and hotel accommodation costs. Please send donations to the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, indicating that it is for the Mock Trial Program.

The local Mock Trial Competition is coordinated by the SCCOE Law Related Programs in collaboration with the Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF), Santa Cruz County Bar Association, Superior Court of California Santa Cruz, and the Santa Cruz Trial Lawyers Association. Over 20 local attorneys volunteered to score the competition and 10 local judicial officers presided. The students are scored on team sportsmanship, presentation skills, analytic ability, and team cooperation. The competition was held at the new Watsonville Court House. The 2009 participating teams were: Aptos High, Harbor High, Santa Cruz High, Scotts Valley High, Soquel High, and St. Francis High.

We are wishing Santa Cruz High the best of luck as they proceed to the state competition. The winning state team will move forward to the national competition held in Atlanta, Georgia May 6-10, 2009.

Mock Trial Documents and Downloads

Mock Trial 2009 Flyer

Mock Trial Judge/Attorney Handbook 2008-2009

Mock Trial Team Rule Book

Mock Trial Score Sheet

Mock Trial Errata for People vs. Lane

Mock Trial 2008 News

The 2008 Mock Trial Competition was held February 5th, 12th, and 18th at the Santa Cruz Courthouse. The 2008 participating teams included Aptos High, Harbor High, Santa Cruz High, Soquel High, Saint Francis, Watsonville High, and Scotts Valley High. Teams of students from these seven county high schools received their case packets in Fall 2007 and spent the following spent months practicing for the Competition.

The arduous process of preparing for the academic decathlon known as Mock Trial commands countless hours of work by students, teachers and attorney coaches in preparation for the competition. The competition was held at the Santa Cruz County Court House over three days in February with Harbor, St Frances, Santa Cruz and Soquel making it to the Semi-finals on February 18th. The Soquel High and Santa Cruz Teams faced off in the finals on the same day, with Santa Cruz High achieving victory over Soquel High by only 6 points. Santa Cruz High will be heading to State finals in Riverside County on March 28-30, 2008.

In addition to the awarding of the 1st and 2nd place trophies to the above teams, the following students received outstanding achievement awards for their performance as attorneys, witnesses, clerks and bailiffs:
Outstanding Prosecution Attorney: Emily Stover- Santa Cruz High; Outstanding Defense Attorney: Hanna Bliden – Soquel High; Outstanding Pretrial Prosecution Attorney: Devlin Mallory – Santa Cruz High; Outstanding pretrial Defense Attorney: Shamik Mascharak – Santa Cruz High; Outstanding Opening Statement Defense: Hanna Bliden – Soquel High; Outstanding Opening Statement Prosecution: Huiling Pan – Harbor High; Outstanding Closing Argument Prosecution Marina Rosenthal – Soquel High; Outstanding Closing Arguments Defense: Aleesha Spurr – Harbor High; Outstanding Clerk: Sofia Beck – Harbor High; Outstanding Bailiff: Arturo Ayala – Watsonville High; Outstanding Defense Witnesses: Sydney Bossard – Soquel High; Tizoc Ramirez – Watsonville High; Honeygirl Lacasandile – Watsonville High; Rachel Siddens – Soquel High; Lindsey Hutchison; Outstanding Prosecution Witnesses: Victoria Juntado – Harbor High; Will Bass – Santa Cruz High; Julia Burgdorf – Harbor High; Colin VanZandt – Santa Cruz High.

This year, the Honorable Jeff Almquist, the Honorable Robert Atack, the Honorable Paul Burdick, the Honorable Denine Guy, the Honorable Paul Marigonda, the Honorable Heather Morse, Referee Kim Baskett, Commissioner Irwin Joseph and Commissioner Steven Siegel served as judges during the three days of competition.

Over 30 local attorneys volunteer as competition scorers and 10 local attorneys volunteer to assist students with their trial preparation. The County Office of Education sponsors this event with the Constitutional Rights Foundation, California State Bar Association, Santa Cruz Judicial System, Santa Cruz County Bar Association, and the Santa Cruz Trial Lawyers Association.

Teen Peer Court

Teen Peer Court is a program run by teens for teens. The objective of the Teen Peer Court program is to interrupt the developing pattern of criminal behavior in referred juveniles by promoting self-esteem, motivation for self-improvement, forming a healthy attitude toward authority, and increasing education.

Teen offenders between the ages of 13 and 17 who have committed a misdemeanor crime have their cases heard by a jury of their peers. Additional peers perform the roles of prosecuting and defense attorneys, bailiff, clerk and jury. A local volunteer judge is the only adult directly involved in the Court proceedings. The offenders assume responsibility for their behavior and accept the consequences of their actions through community service work, serving as future Teen Peer Court jury members, and fulfilling any other creative sentence sanctioned by their TPC jury.

Cases heard in Teen Peer Court are crimes such as shoplifting, possession of alcohol, criminal mischief, battery, and many other misdemeanor offenses. Sources of referral are law enforcement, Juvenile Probation, and the District Attorney's Office. Once the teen offender completes the sentence they have received from the teen jury, the referring agency is notified and the offender's record is erased. If the offender does not complete their sentence, rejects the jury sentence, or re-offends, then their case is returned to the appropriate referral source for prosecution. However, TPC has a very low recidivism rate of 5-6%, as compared to the traditional juvenile probation recidivism rate of 30%.

Teen Peer Court provides an educational experience for the offender and teen volunteers. The teens are given "hands-on" experience with legal processes, become familiar with the court system, and have an opportunity to learn about various career options the court system has to offer. The offenders also learn about various career opportunities through the community service they perform. Teen Peer Court provides young people with a unique challenge and opportunity to demonstrate their capacity for self-government and responsible citizenship.

In addition, the SCCOE's Teen Peer Court is an active member of the National Association of Youth Courts. TPC Director Jo Ann Allen is the co-chair of the National Research and Data Committee. The purpose of this committee is to expand funding and legislative support of Youth Courts throughout the country by creating national standards for program evaluation that will provide empirical evidence as to the successful outcomes of Youth Courts from both quantitative and qualitative data analysis.

Download the Teen Peer Court 2010/2011 schedule.

Check out the Teen Peer Court page on Facebook.

Click here for the National Association of Youth Courts website.

Real DUI Court in Schools

Read an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel aboutReal DUI Court in Schools.

It is reported that last year four million 16-20 year olds drove while under the influence of either alcohol or illicit drugs in the U.S. This makes motor vehicle crashes the leading cause of death among young people in that age group. Altering the attitudes of teen drivers is fundamental to changing their behavior. To achieve this objective, a robust, multifaceted approach to solving the problem of underage drinking and driving is required.

California judicial officers currently participating in the Real DUI Court in Schools program believe this to be a successful model for DUI prevention.

The premise of the Real DUI Court in Schools program is to conduct live driving under the influence (DUI) sentencing hearings in high schools to provide students with the opportunity to see up close the consequences of a DUI offense to individual drivers, crash victims, and local communities.

The Santa Cruz County Office of Education in partnership with Santa Cruz County Superior Courts, Public Defenders Office, and District Attorneys Office bring Real DUI Court in Schools assemblies to interested Santa Cruz County High Schools. The Real DUI Court in Schools assembly provides high school students with: an opportunity to witness the consequences of a real adult DUI sentencing hearing, listen to testimonial speakers, have a question/ answer period about the hearing process with speakers and judicial staff, and learn about underage drinking.