The Student Court

Abstract

Whether high-school pupils should be permitted to handle their own cases of discipline is a moot question. However, a number of high schools in the country have set up organizations the purpose of which is to do that very thing. These organizations are known as student courts. The writer was interested in knowing the advantages and disadvantages of such organizations, their jurisdictions, their forms of organization, the methods of selecting judges and juries, the authority of the courts, how the cases were reported, the nature of the court work, the penalties imposed, and the supervision of the courts. An analysis was made of the writings on the subject found in textbooks in education, educational periodicals, and highschool handbooks. In addition to the analysis of the literature, a number of personal interviews were held with principals and teachers who had had experience in supervising such organizations. Jurisdiction.-An investigation of the practices revealed that the schools granted to their courts jurisdiction ranging all the way from cases arising only in the corridors and on the school grounds, where the pupils were placed in charge, to cases arising in the classroom, where the teachers were in control. Many of the cases Inentioned were those arising in the corridors, study halls, assemblies, lockerrooms, libraries, classrooms, lunchrooms, and on the playgrounds. A few of the courts had jurisdiction over cases of attendance, smoking, gambling, and defacing of property, while very few had jurisdiction over all the acts of the pupils. Organization.-In the matter of organization the schools with courts were found to divide themselves into four classes: (i) those in which the whole student council acted as a court, (2) those in which a part of the governing body acted as a court, (3) those in which the duty was placed in the hands of pupils selected at large from the student body, and (4) those in which the duty was placed in the hands of the home-room, class, or section members. Again,