American Government Class Goes on Trial

By Taylor Stirsman, Torch Reporter

   

    On Thursday, December 17, Mr. Haak’s 2nd and 4th block American Government and Law classes participated in a mock criminal trial to test their knowledge on American Law and the criminal justice system.

    For the trial, the class had one student acting as a judge, two students acting as attorney’s, one defense and one prosecuting, a hand full will be witnesses, and some will be the jury. The attorneys started preparing last week because they had so much to learn for the trial. The witnesses received their information this week and have been studying their information since Monday.

    For the trials, the classes were joined by Mr. Mays and Mr. Warden, two student teachers the classes had been working with previously in the semester.

    OHS Senior, John Crawford was convicted of first degree murder, while another senior, Clayton Willis, got off on a mistrial.

    “The students had a lot of fun with this project and they learned a lot along the way, which is always great,” said Haak.

Because the project was so successful, Haak said that next semester, the American Government and Law class would also be doing the same thing and it is likely it will become a regular thing in the class.

    Not only did the students learn a lot about the criminal justice system during the process of preparing for the project, but Haak said he also learned a lot.  He found ways he could improve the project for future classes to make it even more successful.