Teaching Youth Justice

Rationale
Now that students have a basic understanding of the circumstances when young persons can be placed under arrest, the purpose of this lesson is to build student understandings about statements to the police and young persons’ rights to counsel.

Procedure
1. Review Rights on Arrest from previous lesson.

2. Read Statements to the Police as a group.
KEY QUESTIONS:

• Why is it important that young people are honest to the police about their age?
• Is it reasonable that the rules about statements to the police and people in authority positions do not apply if the young person made a spontaneous outburst before their rights could be explained to them?

3. Teachers may wish to go through Summary of a Statement of a Young Person Form as a further examination of the process of statements to the police.

4. Read Rights to Counsel under the YCJA as a group, then assign discussion questions.
KEY QUESTIONS:

• Why is it important that a person be able to talk to their lawyer in private?
• What would be the consequences if the law did not provide young people the right to counsel?

5. Review Case Study: R. v. C.L.M. as an examination of the concepts introduced in this lesson.