This
week, in the Junior High classroom, there were two Supreme Court cases
presented. Luckily, it was just a mock trial and nobody got arrested. The two
cases that were re-enacted were TLO v. New Jersey and Yoder v.
Wisconsin. The first case was about a teenage girl in a high school who was
smoking in the girls’ restroom. A teacher caught TLO and her friend and took
them to the principal’s office. Her purse was searched at which time marijuana
was found. The Supreme Court sided with TLO on this one, because the evidence
found was inadmissible due to the Fourth Amendment and the exclusionary rule.
The Yoder v. Wisconsin case was about an Amish man
named Jonas Yoder and the Old Order Amish Religion. The Old Order Amish
Religion wished to remove their children from school after the eighth grade.
The state of Wisconsin, however, had a compulsory school attendance law
requiring students under the age of 16 to attend school. The Yoders won because
the state of Wisconsin would be violating the First Amendment which allows free
exercise of religion if they forced these children to go to high school.
We had Mr. Stephen Drendall, a local attorney who knows the
law very well, acting as the Chief Justice and Ethan Lindley acted as an
associate justice. The rest of the class was separated into four groups. There
were four people to a group and we presented our cases. Thanks to the parents
who came to watch our presentations and to Mr. Drendall for taking the time to
help us learn about the law, our constitution and the Bill of Rights.
This concludes the Supreme Court edition of the Junior High
blog.
