{"id":8435,"date":"2021-09-30T15:21:48","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T19:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?p=8435"},"modified":"2021-09-30T15:21:51","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T19:21:51","slug":"teen-court-a-benefit-to-our-communitys-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/teen-court-a-benefit-to-our-communitys-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen Court a benefit to our community&#8217;s youth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>By Martie Thompson<br><a href=\"mailto:editor@floridanewsline.com\">editor@floridanewsline.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Teen Court, developed in Texas in the 1980s, is based upon the premise that youthful offenders will more readily accept responsibility for their actions when judged and sentenced by their peers. In St. Johns County, Teen Court has been in existence since 1999 as part of the St. Johns County Clerk of Court\u2019s office, under the watchful eye of Theresa Simmons, the county\u2019s Teen Court coordinator. In her position, she not only is responsible for acting as a liaison with the State Attorney\u2019s office and the St. Johns County Sheriff\u2019s office for referrals who become the \u201cdefendants\u201d in Teen Court, but also for recruiting teen volunteers from area high schools who become the \u201cprosecutors,\u201d \u201cdefense attorneys,\u201d and \u201cjuries\u201d in Teen Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI have worked in various departments at the Clerk\u2019s office and believe me every job is important here; however, the best position I\u2019ve had and have a passion for is Teen Court,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cI got a chance to make a difference in the lives of children \u2014 making a difference one child at a time \u2014 and I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTheresa has been a critical and integral component of our Teen Court,\u201d said St. Johns County Clerk of Court Brandon Patty. \u201cShe\u2019s been in her position for 21 years and had the first Teen Court case in 2000.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Simmons said since its inception, Teen Court has tried 1,938 cases and more than 500 volunteers have been involved. Prior to the pandemic, Teen Court was held in the St. Johns County Courtroom Annex on Tuesday evenings from 5 p.m. \u2013 9 p.m.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The purpose of Teen Court is to direct minor cases \u2014 first time misdemeanors such as retail theft, battery, trespassing and disruption of school \u2014 away from the formal juvenile court. Those offenders who are referred to Teen Court, as well as their parents, meet with Simmons to determine if they are willing to voluntarily participate in the program. The offender must admit guilt to their charges, testify truthfully in Teen Court, and be willing to accept the sanctions of the Teen Court. Assuming they do, usually no further action is taken and the case is dismissed by the State Attorney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The defendant has a \u201cteen-defense attorney\u201d assigned to their case who is responsible for bringing out mitigating circumstances in an effort to sway the jury to reduce the penalties the jury is required to impose. There is also a \u201cteen-prosecuting attorney\u201d who is trying to bring forward all the reasons why a stronger penalty should be imposed by the jury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201cjuries\u201d in Teen Court are made up of trained middle and high school volunteers along with a few previous defendants from Teen Court, who are mandated to serve on a jury as part of their sentence. This offers the young offenders a unique opportunity for rehabilitation. The jurors listen to both of the teen volunteer attorneys\u2019 arguments and then retire to the deliberation room to come to agreement about the number of jury duties and community service hours the defendant must serve, as well as any other appropriate sanctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Simmons said the teenage volunteers in Teen Court also gain from their involvement and in fact several have gone on to law school themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTeen Court gives the volunteers a sense of confidence,\u201d she said. \u201cThey learn to stand up tall and speak clearly. This translates well to the high school and college classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The program, like many, has been on hiatus the last year due to the pandemic, but Patty said his office is constantly monitoring the delta variant and is hopeful to restart Teen Court this winter. Simmons will be retiring in December, a loss that Patty said will be big.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur intent is to continue to offer Teen Court, and in fact to grow the program,\u201d Patty said. \u201cThis is a legacy program through multiple clerks of court and we want to continue to build it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Simmons said she is still sending out information to teen volunteers who request it (email tsimmons@stjohnsclerk.com if you are interested) and plans to come back as a volunteer after her retirement to lend assistance and knowledge. Patty said his office will post the Teen Court restart date to its website (www.stjohnsclerk.com) as soon as it is set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Photo courtesy Teresa Monson<br>St. Johns County Clerk of Court Brandon Patty and Teen Court Coordinator Theresa Simmons.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Martie Thompsoneditor@floridanewsline.com Teen Court, developed in Texas in the 1980s, is based upon the premise that youthful offenders will more readily accept responsibility for their actions when judged and sentenced by their peers. In St. Johns County, Teen Court has been in existence since 1999 as part of the St. Johns County Clerk of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8392,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-creekline-st-johns","8":"category-ponte-vedra"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Teen Court a benefit to our community&#039;s youth - Florida NewsLine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CreekLine, Ponte Vedra NewsLineBy Martie Thompsoneditor@floridanewsline.com Teen Court, developed in Texas in the 1980s, is based upon the premise that youthful offenders will more\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/teen-court-a-benefit-to-our-communitys-youth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Teen Court a benefit to our community&#039;s youth - 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