Eighth Graders Spend the Day in Court

For the fifth consecutive year, eighth graders had the opportunity to spend their day in court as part of the San Francisco Day in Court program. This year, however, was different because students had the chance to see a criminal case in action, rather than a civil case. “We saw a few cases and the most interesting one was a robbery case in which the defense was questioning a psychiatrist to establish whether the defendant had a manic disorder that rendered it impossible for him to understand that he did something wrong,” says teacher Neal Biskar. The eighth grade social studies curriculum immerses students in learning about the United States system of government and the Constitution. In addition to watching the cases, students met with Brandeis parent and San Francisco judge Linda Colfax, as well as Brandeis parent and Assistant District Attorney David Merin.

 

Adds Mr. Biskar, “Students learned how painstaking and exacting the criminal process can be, which really brings to life what they have learned about the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments, which protect the rights of the accused.”