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Local schools learn
about Teen Court program

by CHRIS GRAY
Observer Staff Writer

      Local students intrigued by the criminal justice system may have an opportunity to experience it firsthand.
       Attorneys from the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office presented the office's Teen Court program to the Northwest Zero Tolerance Coalition (NZTC), a program that involves students in real juvenile cases.
       The coalition, which represents Romeo, Armada, Richmond and Memphis schools, brought the attorneys in so school administrators and parents could preview the program.
       Bill Cataldo, chief of homicide for the prosecutor's office, said students who participate actually help decide the punishments of those in the juvenille system who have pled guilty to a charge.
       "We bring the kids into this court, before this judge in a robe, and we have real juvenile cases with real defendants and real parents and real victims and real police officers and we do a mini-trial in this court," Cataldo said. "This is as close as you get to real life trial experience, if this is something you're interested in."
       Students are trained by attorneys from the prosecutor's office after school hours to take on various roles in the court system, most notably prosecuting and defense attorneys.
       Once they're ready, they go before the judge and argue for or against the proper punishment for a juvenille case, averaging about one or two cases a month.
       The trials take place in the school's local court<in this case, in front of Judge Denis LeDuc of the 42-1 District Court.
       The jury decides a fitting punishment, whether it's making them write letters, not hang out with friends or curfews, and the judge invokes it. The attorney in charge of that school's program then acts as a probation officer for that defendant.
       In return, defendants who go through the Teen Court and comply with the punishment have their record destroyed.
       Cataldo said the attorneys screen the cases to deal with defendants who have no prior record, with the caseloads typically dealing with minor in possession or theft.
       "We try not to deal with the emotional cases like domestic violence or truancy," he said. "We do not use cases that come from the individual jurisdiction of the schools . . . so there is absolutely no chance that whoever sits as a juror will know who the defendant is."
       The program has already been used in Center Line, Utica and Stevenson and will begin in Chippewa Valley Schools this year. It benefits the students by offering a community service venue that helps boost college applications.
       He said it also involves design students, as the program provides funds for the school to design a T-shirt, as well as involving drama students to play the parts of people involved in the cases.
       Vicki Walsh, assistant attorney, would head up the program in the local area. She said the program is good at helping build confidence in students as well as being informative.
       "Getting up and speaking in a room with a bunch of strangers is one of the biggest phobias that human beings have," she said. "To be able to actually give a little more confidence and give them the opportunity to see what real-life consequences are . . . that is a big lesson to be learned."
       LeDuc, who serves as the NZTC chairperson, said his court was willing to participate in the program if local schools wished to become involved.
       "We are terribly busy, but we think a lot of this program and would work it in our schedule," he said.
       Jennifer White, Romeo Community Schools Board of Education secretary, said the program sounds interesting.
       "It sounds like a fabulous opportunity for the students," she said.