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ENews August 2014 |
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Teen Law School in the Classroom Debuts at Kingman High School
More than 250 incoming ninth graders will be the first public school students in Arizona to experience Teen Law School classwork as part of their regular school day. Beginning the last week of August and for eight consecutive days, half of the freshman class of Kingman High School in Kingman, Arizona will attend Teen Law School classes during their regularly scheduled Health/PE class periods. The remainder of the class will attend Teen Law School classes during the second semester beginning in January 2015.
The Teen Law School classes will be taught by Teen Law School's Mohave County instructor, Robert Fudge, a long-time educator and youth development professional who has conducted Teen Law School workshops for court referred youth in Lake Havasu, Kingman and Bullhead City since 2012. The classes will be visited by a local prosecuting attorney with juvenile experience as well as by the school's Resource Officer. Topics will include the rules at school and Arizona laws related to "The Six D's" - Drinking, Driving, Drugs, Dating, Digital Drama and Dumb Stuff. Students will learn the purpose of the rules that regulate their daily lives, understand the short and long term consequences of breaking the rules and breaking the law, and develop effective peer pressure resistance strategies. The course will culminate in student-designed prevention messages which will be shared with the school as a whole.
Many thanks to Kingman High School counselor and Mohave County Community Advisory Board member Jane Himes who introduced Teen Law School to Kingman High School's staff and administration and rallied for all students to benefit from the curriculum.
If you'd like to see Teen Law School in the Classroom become a part of your teen's school day, give us a call. We're always excited to speak with parent groups, principals and superintendents to get the ball rolling!
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    Teen Law School Talks "E Pluribus Unum" with International Visitors at Arizona's Supreme Court
They came from Sweden, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Finland to experience a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour of our country. Their scheduled stop in Phoenix? A visit with the Commission on Minorities in the Judiciary, Arizona Supreme Court, to learn about our state's efforts toward ensuring equal justice for all. In their homelands, our visitors hold positions of influence in policy and practical matters concerning the social integration of immigrant populations, a matter dear to our hearts as well. So when the Commission invited Teen Law School to present our programming to the panel, we were thrilled. We talked about our shared mission of "E Pluribus Unum" (Out of Many, One), and how Teen Law School has found that teaching young people of diverse backgrounds about our local, state and federal laws goes a long way toward communicating our deeper social and cultural values. We all agreed that teaching teens about the law before they learn the hard way is an essential step in preparing the younger generation for full economic and civic engagement as adult members of society. Many thanks to The Honorable Roxanne Song Ong, Chair of the Commission and Phoenix's Presiding Municipal Court Judge for including us in this most important conversation. We loved every minute of it! |
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Teen Law School Awarded Second Arizona Supreme Court Contract to Deliver Early Intervention Programming
Under a two-year contract issued in 2012 by the Juvenile Justice Services Division of Arizona's Supreme Court (AOC), Teen Law School has delivered innovative Diversion programming to hundreds of first-and second-time juvenile offenders in Mohave and Yuma counties. Thanks to a newly-awarded and expanded five-year contract, Teen Law School will be offering its early intervention programming to youth across the state who have been placed on Diversion or Standard Probation status by a county juvenile probation department or court. "Good kids can make mistakes, sometime serious ones," said Mark Hessinger, a former juvenile prosecutor and now Teen Law School's Business and Legal Development Director. "We're thrilled to continue our work educating and empowering these young people to turn their situations around and make safer, law-abiding choices." We at Teen Law School are indeed grateful to the Court for awarding us the high honor of serving Arizona teens and their communities.
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 Marijuana DUI's:
What's in That Metabolite, Anyway?
Until recently, a driver in Arizona could be charged with a DUI if "any measurable amount" of a marijuana metabolite were found in their system, even if the psychoactive effects of the drug had long since worn off - days or even weeks after ingesting the drug. How is it, some posed, that a person could be prosecuted for such a serious crime if it could be proved that they were not impaired by the marijuana, even to the slightest degree? Laboratory tests can easily distinguish between "active" THC metabolites which can cause impairment and "inactive" THC metabolites which linger in the body but have no psychoactive effect, so why should the law ignore the difference? How could the state impose such severe penalties when a driver is not "under the influence" at all?
That question was answered by the Arizona Supreme Court in April when it ruled that drivers cannot be convicted of DUI based only upon on the mere presence of inactive marijuana metabolites (Carboxy-THC). The ruling applies equally to illegal users of marijuana as well as legal users who hold valid medical marijuana cards, but it does not prevent a person from prosecution or conviction if the metabolites found are active to the slightest degree.
How long does it take for active metabolites to lose their psychoactive potency and disappear from view? That's a far more difficult question to answer as every person metabolizes substances at varying speeds. Only a lab test can make that determination for sure. Safe travels! To read the Court's complete ruling, click here.
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Many thanks to
for piloting our innovative
Teen Law School in the Classroom curriculum
Commission on Minorities in the Judiciary
for inviting us to present to your members and the
US State Department's Visiting International Guests
for hosting our
"Ask The Attorney"
Video Project
Follow us on
For more information about Teen Law School and The Teen Law School Project (501c3),
please call
us at 480-584-3692.
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Is your school, church, organization or employer ready for a Teen Law School or LawU101 workshop? For group rates and more information, please call 1-877-211-8825.
Sincerely,
The Team at Teen Law School, Inc.
P.S. Teen Law School does not offer legal advice, and nothing in this newsletter should be construed or mistaken as legal advice. The only way to receive reliable legal advice is to consult with a licensed attorney.
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