Street Law Mini Project
The purpose of this project was to study our 4th Amendment rights and determine what the police are and are not allowed to do in school, at my house, on the street, or any other location. We learned about several different scenarios, what our legal rights are in each one, and the difference between a hunch, suspicion, reasonable suspicion, and probable cause. The police came and talked to us about a party bust and answered any questions we had.
The purpose of this project was to study our 4th Amendment rights and determine what the police are and are not allowed to do in school, at my house, on the street, or any other location. We learned about several different scenarios, what our legal rights are in each one, and the difference between a hunch, suspicion, reasonable suspicion, and probable cause. The police came and talked to us about a party bust and answered any questions we had.
For my project I chose to do a demonstration in the form of mini skits. I went to 4 different exploratories to briefly explain some of their basic rights. One skit involves cell phone privacy in schools, one revolves around search and seizure in schools, one is about the right to remain silent, and the last is a downtown stop and frisk scenario. In addition to the skit, I made a simple brochure with definitions, scenarios, and explanations to hand out to students.
I originally wanted to do a demonstration on minor rights vs. adult rights, but I couldn't find any information on it. I was really interested in this topic because in entertainment media the cops always have to wait for parents and lawyers to question minors and follow several other rules, and I wanted to know what the law really was. I'm curious if minors are treated really differently or not. Unfortunately I found very little about what happens to minors before they're being tried in court. There are several differences between minors and adults in a court setting. I was able to use what little info I did find combined with the info we had already learned in class to create an informative presentation.