'They want to see people turn their lives around' | Middle schoolers see judges in new light after visiting DC Superior Court

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — A group of D.C. middle schoolers stood before a judge Wednesday morning to ask questions about careers, communities, and second chances. 

The outreach effort is part of the court’s mission to connect with the community.

Judges have visited Anacostia Highschool, H Street Festival, and on this day, they hosted two dozen students from Johnson Middle School in Southeast at DC Superior Court.

When far too many of their peers are standing on the wrong side of a judge’s bench, the young scholars got a behind the scenes look at the courthouse. They toured courtrooms, heard from lawyers, and talked to judges.

“Just because they may be judges they have a normal life and still care about people,” said eighth grader Lucas Bell, “they don’t just want to throw people off to jail. They also want to see people turn their lives around and get second chances.”

Their day in court started with an ice breaker, where students played a throwback game of "To Tell the Truth" by working together as teams to figure out who is the real judge from a panel of three women.

The students asked questions based on the judge’s biography, which was read earlier in the day.

After each guess, a court staffer asked, “Will the real judge please stand up?”  

All three women slowly started to rise out of their seats until Associate Judge Yvonne Williams stood straight up amid laughs and applause.

“This isn’t a place you have to be fearful of this is a place you can build collaboration with,” said school librarian Neoka Smith who chaperoned the field trip. “This isn’t a place you have to shrink yourself to be in the presence of those that walk the halls.”

“You are as smart as everyone else you are a winner, and we are going to help you in every way we can,” Chief Judge Anita Josey-Herring told the young people. 

After the students left to tour another part of the courthouse, the Chief Judge spoke to WUSA9 about intervening and exposing students to careers in law, so crime is not an option.

“We actually want to see them be better and stop the revolving door,” said Chief Judge Josey-Herring. “It’s heartbreaking when we see kids that we’ve seen early on in our system in a different part of our system. We can only do so much, but we are doing everything we can to stop it.”

“I learned about people that also grew up in the projects and made it somewhere far and how they feel about kids who had rough lifestyles and made mistakes and the changes they can make in their futures,” said eighth grader Marleia Meeks who wants to study forensic science and carried a notebook full of notes from the days presentations.

“They can move beyond the circumstance they were born into so we’re really trying to help these kids but we’re calling on parents to really step up and make sure their kids are in school,” said the Chief Judge. “We’re calling on the government to make sure these schools are strong so kids are actually learning and don’t have to resort to criminal behavior because they have no other skills.”

The family court just launched a 90-day pilot program called Succeeding in Our Academic Responsibility or SOAR. Volunteers coach and mentor school students who’ve fallen into chronic truancy, which they describe as one of the first red flags that something is wrong.