Recently, we had the honor and privilege of participating in the Supreme Court of Ohio’s Off-Site Court Program as members of the Crawford County Bar Association’s off-site coordinating committee and as magistrates in the Crawford County Common Pleas Court. The Off-Site Program is designed to foster civic education by giving high school students the opportunity to experience Supreme Court sessions in their home counties. Over six hundred students in Crawford County took advantage of this opportunity in three hearings conducted at Bucyrus Secondary School.
The prospect of 200 plus teenagers in the same room without smart phones is daunting, particularly when the Court’s expectation of decorum is the same level of silence and respect required of any other observer of Court proceedings. The anxiety level of our coordinating committee increased when Court personnel advised us in the planning process that our anticipated audience would be among the largest the Court ever experienced. Challenge accepted.
Game Day was on the 23rd of October. Well-dressed students from Buckeye Central, Bucyrus, Colonel Crawford, Crestline, Galion, Wayside Christian and Wynford took turns solemnly filing into the Little Theater at Bucyrus Secondary School, which had been transformed into the Ohio Supreme Court’s courtroom for the day. Pioneer Career and Technology Center students in law enforcement and criminal justice programs provided supplemental security for the Court security and local and state safety forces.
The students attending the first session had the opportunity to conduct a Question and Answer session with the Justices prior to the hearing. Students took full advantage of the opportunity and eagerly engaged the Justices with thoughtful questions about the process of becoming a Justice on the Supreme Court of Ohio and the judicial process itself. Each of the three groups had the opportunity for a Question and Answer session with the attorneys who argued before the Court. While we did not witness these sessions, those who did reported that in these discussions the students were similarly engaged, energetic and respectful.
In short, the behavior of the youth of our County was beyond reproach from start to finish. Youth have been criticized broadly on a generational level for decades, if not centuries, and such general criticism continues to the present. Fairness demands public credit when they demonstrate the maturity to which we all aspire. Notably, the Justices remarked upon both the appearance and behavior of our students during their visit, and continue to do so in their expressions of gratitude for Crawford County’s hospitality. Our local Justice Paul Pfeifer informed us that he encountered students in public both prior to and after the Off-Site Program expressing eager anticipation of, and appreciation for, the Off-Site Program. Challenge met.
Although our younger generation deserves primary recognition for the success of the Off-Site Program, they are not alone in deserving recognition. Credit is also due what might broadly be defined as “our generation.” This includes the Justices, Supreme Court staff, Crawford County Common Pleas Judge Russell B. Wiseman, school administrators, teachers and staff from our hosts, Bucyrus City School District, as well as those from Buckeye Central Local School District, Colonel Crawford Local School District, Crestline Exempted Village School District, Galion City School District, Wayside Christian School, and Wynford Local School District, safety forces, attorneys who argued, and attorneys from the Crawford County Bar Association who educated and/or organized the event under the leadership of Bar Association President Jay Wagner. All of these people went well out of their way for months to create this rare opportunity to share with our students the respect that we have for the rule of law that is critical to a free society.
Generational differences are only diminished or resolved through interaction based on mutual respect. In this instance, our older generation respected our students enough to know that the lesson would not be lost on them, and trusted our students to live up to the Court’s expectations. Our students respected the efforts of their elders to impart the importance of our legal tradition by taking full advantage of the lesson and demonstrating that our trust in them was very well-placed.
In recognition of the adage: “Give credit where credit is due,” great credit is due our students for their exemplary conduct and the honor they brought to all of us in Crawford County. With respect to our generation, as Walt Whitman said, “If you done it, it ain’t braggin’,” and everyone who endeavored to make this opportunity possible is to be commended. Put another way, with apologies to The Who, the kids are alright, and so, incidentally, are their elders.
Magistrate Mary Eileen Holm
Magistrate Robert Clark Neff, Jr.