Helping young people learn about the laws that govern their daily lives is what Teen Law School is all about. Bringing that education to high schools across the state is what we're abuzz about in 2014. Plans are underway now to introduce our popular Arizona Law for Teens course to select public, private and charter high schools in the Fall.  The 8-week "mini-mester" of courses is designed to be taught during Health classes by visiting Teen Law School leaders and attorneys who cover the laws, penalties and real life consequences of typical teenage behaviors. Rules at school as well as relevant local, state and federal laws in the "Six D's" danger zones of Drinking, Driving, Dating, Drugs, Digital Drama and Dumb Stuff will be taught and discussed.

Through role-playing, small group activities and games; students go through an intensive four-hour class and learn peer pressure resistance skills as well as about laws pertaining to what Hessinger calls "The Six Ds," which are "Drinking, Driving, Drugs, Dating, Digital Drama, and Dumb Stuff."

Hessinger is a recently retired Supervising Deputy Yuma County Attorney who prosecuted local criminal cases for 10 years in the adult court and for 13 years in the juvenile court system where he retired as supervisor.

"All the years I was prosecuting juvenile delinquency cases I was hoping that someone would develop a curriculum to teach our young people about the laws that they might run into and the sometimes very heavy consequences for breaking those laws... and just before I retired I found out about Teen Law School when it was brought to Yuma by our local juvenile court," said Hessinger said. "I think this program is a real godsend." 

The program was developed by Claudia Gilburd, CEO and founder of Teen Law School, after an incident where her own son almost got into trouble with the law about eight years ago. "I learned about how the system works and I noticed that there weren't a lot of opportunities for kids to learn about the law. I certainly hadn't learned about it myself, so I thought that it was time kids were educated," Gilburd said.

The program is currently taught in a handful of other counties in Arizona and she explained that the goal is for it to become a course taught in public schools around the state."Our most important goal with this program is to reach kids before they have any contact with the system," said Gilburd.

After presenting the idea to the Arizona Department of Education, she said that they are now working to mold their one-time intensive course into a curriculum that allows for 45-50 minute sections that can be taught within the confines of a regular school day.

Class instructors consist of trained professionals and local attorneys who help teens understand penalties and real life consequences of breaking the law, in addition to information about legal rights protection.

Hessinger added, "Our mantra is, 'Whenever you break the law, you put your freedom at risk.' We're straight up with the kids, we can't guarantee them that if they break the law they'll get caught or if they get caught that they'll get prosecuted; but what we can guarantee is that every time you break the law, you put your freedom at risk, and sometimes it's a large loss of freedom."

In addition to the Teen Law School class, which is offered to any groups of teens at $75 a person, with discounts for larger groups, there is also a free 60 to 90 minute presentation available for parents groups, entitled, "Your Teens and the Law: What Every Arizona Parent Should Know."Teen Law School, Inc., is a contracted vendor of the Arizona Administrative Office of the Court. For more information about the classes,contact Hessinger atmhessinger@teenlawschool.com or at 877-211-8824, ext. 706.

Sarah Womer can be reached at swomer@yumasun.com or 539-6858. Find her on Facebook at Facebook.com/YSSarahWomer or on Twitter at @YSSarahWomer.  Reprinted with permission from Yuma Sun, February 16, 2014. Photo by Randy Hoeft/Yuma Sun