Tomorrow morning I'll be heading over to Portland High School to lead a "Know Your Rights" workshop. We lead dozens of workshops just like this throughout the year, and it's one of our most popular -- and important -- lessons. We think it's essential that everyone understand their basic rights and, just as importantly, that they feel comfortable exercising them. For many high school students, their next encounter with law enforcement will be their first. They deserve to know their basic rights -- and responsibilities -- when dealing with the police.
Of course the secret beauty of teaching students about their rights with the police is that we can seamlessly work in a basic history of the Bill of Rights and why its protections are so important at the same time. Want to tell a police officer that you don't consent to a search of your vehicle? Let's talk about the Fourth Amendment first. Want to remain silent if law enforcement is asking you questions? Let's review the Fifth Amendment and see what it says about that. Need a lawyer? Can't afford one? Don't worry, the Sixth Amendment guarantees that everyone gets a lawyer. Connecting these constitutional dots while at the same time showing students how the Bill of Rights applies to their lives is at the heart of our "Know Your Rights" workshops -- and our education program as a whole.
These workshops are also a great chance for us to listen to young people and hear their concerns. Many students will share stories with us about interactions they've had with the police. Others will give their opinions on the civil liberties issues we discuss. It reminds us why it's so important to teach "Know Your Rights" workshops to young people in the first place: they're not as young as they seem. Many are surprisingly well spoken and we hear from a wider range of viewpoints than you might expect. High school students are just starting to engage with the world as adults -- driving cars, going out with their friends, testing boundaries -- and they're genuinely curious what their rights and responsibilities are should they find themselves in trouble. We owe them an honest answer.
Tomorrow will be our fourth trip to Portland High School in 2012, and we're happy to have struck up such a nice relationship there. We'll be speaking with a criminal justice class, and it's always particularly fun to teach civil liberties to students who are already learning about the subject in class. It promises to be an exciting time!
