PIHS students reach verdict:
Supreme Court experience was ‘awesome’
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Learning about the judicial system in civics class is one thing; seeing the legal process at work firsthand is another.
Last Tuesday, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court heard three appellate cases in the Presque Isle High School auditorium, giving students the opportunity to trade the classroom for the courtroom.
Since 2005, the Court has held oral arguments in actual appellate cases in high schools around the state. The PIHS trip was arranged at the invitation of former state Rep. Alex Willette.
“I thought it was an awesome experience, said Emma Kinney, a PIHS senior. “You really get to understand what it’s like to be in there, how things are run, and how serious they take it. I thought it was great to be able to understand and see it for myself … something I would probably never see.
“I think it’s an awesome idea for the justices to come to schools,” she said. “It’s good for us because we get a better understanding of what it’s all about, and I think for them, it’s cool to see us take an interest in it.”
Junior Kori Malenfant agreed.
“It was a great opportunity for our school to be able to have them come here. I’ve never watched something like that, so it was really cool to see the process, how it works, and to see real-life chief justices and judges in our school,” she said. “It was also a chance for students who may want to get into that profession to see what kind of questions they’ll have to answer and what kind of issues they’ll have to deal with. It was awesome.”
Senior Kyle Nadeau said he appreciated seeing an actual case — not a fictitious one.
“I thought it was really cool how it was a real-life case, it wasn’t set up as a mock trial. We get our civics class our sophomore year, so we get an understanding of the legal system and how it works, but for them to come here, really builds on that,” Nadeau said. “Plus it shows us how the ‘real world’ works, and how things aren’t as easy as sometimes people think they are. It was a great experience to see and be a part of.”
While interesting for the students, the Oct. 28 session was particularly meaningful for the Hon. Warren Silver, associate justice of the Maine Supreme Court, as he graduated from PIHS in 1966.
“I am a proud native of Presque Isle,” said Silver, who now resides in Bangor. “I was born in the hospital where city hall is now, and went to a nursery school across the street from that hospital.
“I don’t get back here as much as I’d like because I don’t have family here anymore,” he said. “However, I come up every summer for the Aroostook County Bar picnic, and then I come up occasionally for some other thing, but no where near as regularly as I would like to.”
Silver said creating a real courtroom in a high school is a wonderful opportunity for students.
“These are real-life cases for the Maine Supreme Court. This is part of our October schedule; it just happens to be in a school auditorium,” he said. “This is a total eye-opener for them because all they know is what they see on television. This is an appellate court which is quite different from a trial court. The evidence is already in and we look at technical issues. I think the kids learn a lot about the system, and when they watch live arguments with real lawyers and how we pepper them with real questions, they realize the degree of difficulty involved in all this. It’s a good experience for them.
“I hope they get a sense for what the Maine Supreme Court does, a little bit about how the system works, and I hope they’re inspired to either become a lawyer or be more aware of what goes on legally,” said Silver. “I really want kids to be involved in the system — whether it’s as a legislator, a judge or a city councilor — although we’d prefer they not be defendants.”
