Program teaches youth legal rights

<p>Sixteen-year-old Sean Escher has been in front of a few judges before, and it hasn’t always turned out so well.</p><p>But on Monday, Escher walked away from a Law Week presentation by Gary Nadler, assistant presiding judge of Sonoma County Superior Court, with an entirely new perspective on the court system, the nation’s laws and judges themselves.</p><p>“I didn’t really know judges are for rights,” Escher said. “Everything you hear, they are out to get you.”</p><p>The hour presentation by Nadler and attorney Heidi Bernheim Urioste at Airway Community School was part of five days of Law Week activities in which about 50 volunteer attorneys and judges will give hour-long presentations at about 15 schools and youth programs across Sonoma County this week to talk about law as both a career and a bedrock of citizenship.</p><p>Sponsored by the Sonoma County Office of Education and the Sonoma County Bar Association, the project this year focuses on the concept of habeas corpus or the legal means to challenge unlawful detention.</p><p>“I tell you what, folks, without that right, we don’t have a whole lot, do we?” Nadler said.</p><p>Speakers were asked to use historical references, from presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt’s suspension of the law in times of war or rebellion, to challenge students to question the actions of government and society.</p><p>“Does everyone here just think the government never does anything wrong?” Nadler asked Airway students Monday.</p><p>“Hell no,” was the chorused reply.</p><p>“I’m with you and I’m part of the government,” Nadler said. “That’s what this is all about folks.”</p><p>“It’s important for them to understand that is is a really a foundational part of our liberty,” said Rebecca Gallagher, education specialist in career development for the county Office of Education. </p><p>At Airway, where students attend because they have been expelled from other schools, some students who listened to Nadler and Urioste Monday have also struggled with drugs and alcohol.</p><p>Kai Chilvers, 18, spent five days in juvenile hall two years ago when he was caught with a hookah pipe and what police thought was drugs.</p><p>“They said it was hash oil and we all just got locked up,” he said. “I was saying ‘No, you can’t do this,’ but I didn’t know what I know now.’”</p><p>Chilvers, who says he’s been largely drug and alcohol free for a year, said Monday’s visit from a sitting judge put a new face on the court system he’s all too familiar with.</p><p>“I like to know they have souls,” he said.</p><p>Nadler emphasized to the students the empowered feeling he felt when he successfully navigated law school and first became an attorney. </p><p>“I see a lot of good brains in this room,” he said.</p><p>“What you should always think about is not just getting through high school but going to college,” he said. “There is no reason any of you can’t go to law school.”</p><p>Staff Writer Kerry Benefield writes an education blog at extracredit.pressdemocrat.com. She can be reached at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@</p><p>pressdemocrat.com.</p>