As a Marshall Brennan Constitutional Literacy Fellow, I teach a constitutional law class called Youth Justice at School Without Walls, a local DC high school. Erase all the images you may have formulated in your mind about a huge warehouse with hundreds of noisy students, the name is a methapor for a pedagogical approach that allows the city to be the classroom and encourages teachers to organize field trips and guest speakers. The school has walls…

In my class of 15 students, mostly sophomores and juniors, I teach defendant’s rights focusing on the 4th amendment (rights against unreasonable search and seizures), 5th amendment (right against self-incrimination and Miranda rights), 6th amendment (right to counsel), and 8th amendment (cruel and unusual punishment). We focus on students’ rights in schools such as the first amendment right to wear a black arm band (or other non-disruptive activity) as a silent protest against the Vietnam War (Tinker v. Des Moines, one of the signature cases we discussed.)

My students call me Ms. Ortiz, which is way weird but my co-teacher and I agreed that we wanted to have a foundation based on respect. When we tried to call them by their last names, they excersiced their democratic rights to vote and vetoed our plan. Mad props to all the teachers out there; being in front of students is a humbling experience. Even the students in the back corner that you think never pays attention or the student who is constantly talking to his neighbor are listening and making sure you check yourself, before you wreck yourself. Discipline is so difficult with these teenagers because just as quickly as they get riled up about an issue, they forget about it and hold no hard feelings. Good lesson to relearn, don’t dwell on the small stuff. With other students it seems impossible to get them to care about anything themselves or their futures.

Challenge extended… challenge accepted!