The third grade Gifted and Talented students at Hillcrest School recently won the designation of being First Place Winners in the New Jersey Bar Foundation’s Annual Law Fair Contest. The prize will be to take the written case that the students wrote as a collaborative effort and turn it into a trial in front of a judge and jury. This will happen in New Brunswick at the Law Center on Constitution Avenue on May 15^th. Each of the students will have the opportunity to act out the part. Some children will be lawyers and others will be witnesses.

The students began their study of law by reviewing the legal concepts in the fairy tale of Goldilocks. Through their investigation they discussed the concepts of trespassing, breaking and entering, malicious destruction of property, negligence, and parental responsibility, to name a few. All of the subsequent case studies that the students reviewed had objectives pertaining to various concepts of law as told through a child’s eyes. All of the lessons reflected the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards.

The students progressed to the point where they could write their own case. They were successful!

The facts of the case of Waiting for a Playground: Grounds for a Suit or Grounds for a Hoot were as follows:

At 3:45 P.M. on October 31, 2005 there was a problem at Blame School on 123 Hyper Street in Sunnyvale, New Jersey. Little Steven Greedy fell off the new playground set in the schoolyard. The Greedy parents are suing the school for negligence and all medical bills.

Concepts: Negligence vs. School Supervision

Student Authors:

Majed Ammari

Anthony Kovacs

Nikita Kulkarni

Aaliyah Milson

Joseph Morales

Steven Murset

Ayanna Neal

Jerome Ramos

Kayla Tinio

David Valdevieso

Teacher:
Pamela Treut

April 6, 2006