If you have ever gotten in trouble in school and felt that your punishment was harsh, unfair or unnecessary, you can take your issues to student court where students can argue for a better suited consequence for their actions. 

With Law Studies teacher Sheila O’Farrell as the judge and Law Club students as the jury, students will be provided a lawyer chosen from the fourth period Law Honors class who has studied and been trained for student court cases. 

In order to have a student court case you can request it with SCSI Instructor Dr. Kebony King. 

“Student court is considered a diversionary program,” O’Farrell said. “So instead of sitting in CSI, getting suspended, receiving a referral or getting expelled, they can go to court and argue their case for a lesser punishment.” 

Although a lesser punishment isn’t guaranteed, students can take a chance at reducing their punishments. Being able to take our problems to court allows for more opportunity for students to speak up about what they feel is right. 

“Student court is valuable to me because I believe in restorative justice, where rather than just putting people away we can offer something more,” O’Farrell said. “Sometimes students have valid issues for what they do. So we want to give them a safe place to explain why they did what they did