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May 16, 2008

Kids try cases in court

By Kim Sloan

One Whitfield County “jury” found Jeremiah Birch guilty of attacking I.M. Wolfe with an ax.

Another “jury” found Birch not guilty.

Whitfield County elementary school students learned about the legal system during mock trials at the Whitfield County Courthouse Friday morning. Some juries found the fictional Birch guilty while some found him not guilty.

Birch was on trial for attacking Wolfe, who was holding his hand over Scarlett Hood’s mouth as he walked into Hood’s grandmother’s house. Ida Mae Moses, Hood’s grandmother, said Wolfe was auditioning at her home for a part in a local theater production. That is why Wolfe was wearing her clothes, Moses testified.

Wolfe said Birch hit him to get even for his stealing Birch’s plans to build homes for three brothers.

“It’s a play on the ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ story,” said Eva Hendrix, who organized the day’s events. Hendrix is a teacher of gifted students at Cohutta Elementary School. Seven teams from the six Whitfield County elementary schools participated, with the juries coming from parents, teachers and some central office staff.

Local attorney Rick Brown coordinated the event. Brown, Judge Jack Partain and other attorneys presided over the trials.

Kaliann Whaley, a fifth-grader at Cohutta Elementary, was Grandma Moses and had to testify at one of the trials. She had prepared for the questions, but said she wasn’t prepared for the lawyers to ask additional questions.

“I was really nervous,” Whaley said. “I feel like they had those questions so they could confuse me.”

“Just like in the real world,” Hendrix added.

The students prepared for the trials by learning legal terms such as “hearsay” and “affidavit.”

Fifth-grader Julie Watkins, who objected to some testimony on the grounds of hearsay, admitted, “I didn’t know what hearsay was until we started this.”

Watkins and her classmates Bella Saldivar and Taylor Ogle, also fifth-graders at Cohutta, said they want to be attorneys.

“Before this I was thinking I wanted to be one but now I know I want to be one,” Ogle said.

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