Today the adolescent students marked the end of their Judicial System unit, with a visit to the 8th U.S. District Court in downtown St Louis.

The students began the judicial unit months ago, reading and discussing, 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose. We then continued our studies by exploring the formation of our Judicial system through Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Papers and the US Constitution.
The students explored types courts, types of cases, players in a courtroom, jury selections and landmark cases. The students had in-depth conversations, driven by their research into historical and current judicial systems worldwide.

During today’s visit, to the courthouse, our class sat in on a Federal Crime sentencing under US District Judge Audrey Fleissig, Missouri Lawyers Weekly’s 2016 Woman of the Year. Prior to our visit, we learned about Judge Flessing’s career, past cases and her work to reform Federal Court Sentencing.

Today, the students also met with a Secret Service Special Agent, who talked about the roles and responsibilities of the US Secret Service. The special agent also allowed the students to conduct a hands-on investigation of US currency, weeding out counterfeits.

Both the in-class unit and today’s courthouse visit proved to both inform and inspire our students. When asked how many days of school they had left, not one knew the answer off hand. They were rewarded with a picnic in beautiful City Garden and returned to rehearse for our May 19th play.