Legal academy
The Legal Academy introduces students to careers in the legal field as they develop the necessary skills to pursue these careers. The Legal Academy offers a three-year course sequence beginning in the tenth grade. Students explore various fields of law, including criminal law, criminology, and constitutional law. Students may also complete an independent study project or internship in their senior year to complement their classroom studies through the Generation Citizen program. Additionally, our school has a working relationship with New York University Law School through their Juvenile Justice Law Clinic and Criminal Law Clinic. NYU law professors and law school studies visit and speak in our Legal Academy classes.
Courses offered within the Legal Academy include: (1) Introduction to Legal Studies, (2) Constitutional Law, (3) Sociology, (4) Advanced Topics in Legal Studies, (5) Contemporary Issues in Law & Justice, (6) Forensic Science, (7) Law & Literature, (8) Literature & Argumentation, and (9) Participation in Government.
Introduction to Legal Studies
This course is intended to establish a foundation of understanding of the American legal system and other systems of government and deepen students’ knowledge and understanding of the judicial branch at the national, state and local levels of government.
Constitutional Law
Constitutional Law examines the workings of the Supreme Court and major Supreme Court Cases. Cases will be examined thematically. Themes will include: freedom of speech, separation of church and state, gay rights, civil right, rights of students and rights of the accused. Class work will involve examining cases, presenting cases, debating constitutional issues and role playing.
Sociology
This course is focused on introducing students to the foundations of sociology. Sociology focuses on the systematic understanding of social interaction, social organization, social institutions, and social change. Understanding sociology helps explain social patterns by making vivid the social basis of everyday life, and develops critical thinking by revealing the social structures and processes that shape diverse forms of humanity.
Advanced Topics in Legal Studies
What is inside the criminal mind? Does the American criminal justice system really achieve justice? Students will explore a crime from beginning to end through the eyes of the public servants charged with law enforcement. This will include criminology, forensic science, and investigation skills, police work at the local, state, and federal levels, and the roles of attorneys, judges, and corrections officers in fighting crime. Finally, the course will conclude with a study of the post-correction system including social work and parole officers.
Contemporary Issues in Law & Justice
This course will be designed to introduce students to contemporary issues in the field and support their capstone experience – an internship connected to a community service project or research paper.
Forensic Science
Forensic Science is a senior-level course rich in exploration and lab investigation which applies many disciplines of scientific study such as biology/anatomy, chemistry, and physics to solving crimes.
Forensic Science is the application of science (chemistry, physics, and biology) to the criminal and civil laws that are enforced by police agencies in a criminal justice system. It includes the investigation of fingerprinting, fiber analysis, ballistics, arson, trace evidence analysis, poisons, drugs, blood spatters, and blood samples. Students are taught the proper collection, preservation, and laboratory analysis of various samples.
Law & Literature
This course is one of two ELA options for 10th graders in the fall. It was designed for students who entered HSPS through the Legal Academy, though anyone who is interested may choose this English class option. Students will be examining how some of the power dynamics in our legal and political systems came to be, exploring legal theories and philosophies of justice. Students will read a variety of short stories, study philosophy and court decisions, and view documentary research as they consider the purpose of law and what measures exist in society that help or hinder justice.
Over the course of this semester, students will study and apply questions of ethics to real and current legal issues, completing case studies, close-reading and discussing, researching, arguing, and ultimately presenting their position on an issue they have become expert in.
Literature & Argumentation
This is one of several ELA options that 9th & 10th graders can choose to take during the spring semester. This class studies persuasive rhetoric through analyzing ads and speeches. Students read the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, the novella Animal Farm by George Orwell, and a variety of non-fiction texts. Through close-reading, debate, and writing, students develop strong argumentation skills.
Participation in Government
Through engaged learning opportunities and a culminating policy project, students will understand their rights and responsibilities as citizens of local, national, and global communities. Students will broaden their concept of participation in government, government representations, legislation, gain a clearer understanding of policy making, and develop advocacy skills to authentically apply their choices to their lives. Through participation in the Generation Citizen program, students will participate in a series of activities focused on the following themes Citizenship, Government Representations, Civic Action, and Public Policy.