Door to the Legal System Opens for Seeds of Health’s Tenor and MC2 High School students on April 12th & April 13th, thanks to Marquette University Law School’s Milwaukee Street Law Program

For more information, contact:

Marcia Spector, Executive Director - Seeds of Health, Inc.
414-390-0825, [email protected]

 

Stephanie Sherman, Media Contact
414-422-3080, [email protected]

 

 

 

MILWAUKEE (April 10, 2018) – Students from Seeds of Health’s Tenor and MC2 High Schools will have their day in court on Thursday, April 12th and Friday, April 13th as part of The Milwaukee Street Law program at Marquette University’s Law School. The goal of the program is to give Milwaukee students an introduction to the legal system while connecting them to Marquette University’s Law School.

 

On Thursday, April 12th from 5:00 – 7:00 pm students from Tenor, MC2, Hmong American Peace Academy and Milwaukee Collegiate Academy will compete in a real courtroom in front of an actual judge at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, 901 N. 9th St. Students will fill roles as the defense team, plaintiff and witnesses, give opening and closing statements and cross examine witnesses.

 

The top scoring teams will compete against one another on Friday, April 13th from 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. at the Milwaukee Federal Building & U.S. Courthouse, 517 E. Wisconsin Ave. The day will conclude when the jury makes its decision and announces a winning team.

 

To prepare for the competition, the nearly 50 students from Tenor and MC2 High Schools have participated in a year-long class taught by second-year Marquette University Law students Aliya Manjee and King Tse.

During the first semester, students received a general introduction to how the legal system works and selected a subject of specific interest: affordable housing. Guest speakers included a local eviction attorney, former State Representative Mandella Barnes, and a local police officer.

 

During the second semester, students received their case and developed teams for the mock trial: a re-enactment of a judicial proceeding. A big focus was placed on simulating court proceedings and public speaking. In this year’s case, former high school students sue a computer company because of a perceived invasion of privacy.

 

Tenor High School Social Studies Educator Alex Funk coaches the Tenor team throughout the year and sees the positive impact that the Milwaukee Street Law program has on students, “This provides a boost of confidence. It’s a turning point in their high school life. What they take away guides them well beyond their years at Tenor.” Luke Johnson, Social Studies Educator from MC2 witnesses a similar transformation in his students.

 

Milwaukee Street Law was launched at Marquette by Deanna Singh, a local lawyer who took part in a similar program as a student at the Georgetown University Law Center, where Street Law was founded in the 1970s.

Founded in 1983, Seeds of Health, Inc. is the only K-12 charter school agency in the state of Wisconsin serving approximately 1,300 students in four high schools and a K-8 elementary program. The five individual and unique education programs serve a broad range of student needs – from at-risk to the college bound.

Tenor High School is a 2r charter school chartered through the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. MC2 is authorized by Milwaukee Public Schools as a non-instrumentality charter school.

 

Seeds of Health is Milwaukee’s innovative “home grown” answer to imaginative, collaborative and cutting-edge education options, with the vision to positively impact the growth and development of urban children. For more information, please visit www.seedsofhealth.org.

 

 

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