Melrose High School, Melrose, MA

Melrose High School, Melrose, MA

Friday, May 10, 2013

Feature Class: Legal Issues



          Legal issues is a favorite history elective among the seniors here at Melrose High School.  It runs as a College Prep and as an Honors class and has been available for students to take for multiple years.  The class focuses on the court systems and government in the United States, specifically those in Massachusetts.  Mr. Gerard Tannetta is the only teacher of the class this year.  He is a new teacher here at MHS, but used to teach in the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School.  He says, "I like [the class].  It is an interesting class because we look at controversial topics on whether people are guilty or if someone is liable to sue or not."  In class, the students practice how the court system works by performing some mock trial cases.  In these mock cases, the students take on the role of a lawyer, a judge or a witness and together they act out their assigned parts.  The class then decides whether the convicted person would be presumed innocent or guilty.  Senior Adam Elmore says “The class is actually really interesting; it’s cool to see how our court system works and to learn what rights I have." 

By Alyssa McFarland