School court is one of the events that represent the Korean Minjok Leadership Academy (KMLA). Television documentaries that introduce KMLA always show the school court. Many middle school students who want to enter KMLA watch the documentary and admire the school court. In fact, I also wanted to experience the school court when I first came to KMLA. However, as six months passed, school court is now a very familiar event to me, since I often violated the school regulations.
Every student who is accused of the school regulations should participate in the school court. The list of their names is uploaded in the school community website. If a student thinks that the accusation is inappropriate, the student writes a final defending speech, and submits it to the judicature council. Then, the council carries out a trial a day before the court, and decides whether to accept or reject the speech. When the defending speech is accepted, the council eliminates the penalty points. Recently, the student council adopted the student participation trial, so the trial involves the student juries, who are not related to the judicial committee.
The court starts on every Thursdays 7 p.m., in the auditorium or the gym. The judicature council sits in the front, and administrates the court with the Ministry of Justice. During the court procedures, teachers do not interfere at all. Only English is used in the court. Every accused student in the court is named by the council in sequence, and they come out in front of the court. The council reads out the regulation clause they violated. The one who did not submit the defending speech bows and goes back. When the one who submitted the defending speech comes out, the Ministry of Justice reads out the defending speech in front of all the students. Then, the student goes back. After all the students are named, the council announces the result of the trial. Then, the teacher who manages student guidance appears and cautions the students.
The fact that the school court is administrated only by the students is evaluated very highly. School court is the paradigm of the student autonomy. The student council members, who are also students and can most fully understand the situations of the accused students, judge the defending speech. Therefore, the school court and the defending speech is the most efficient way to eliminate improper and unfair penalty points. However, the council is never overly generous to the accused students. The council members always try to give impartial decisions, not regarding their private relationships with the accused students. In addition, the atmosphere of the court is generally quiet and grave, even though there are no teachers who keep eyes on the students. School court shows that students’ rights are preserved from the dogmatic decisions of teachers, and how sincerely the student council members keep their responsibility and integrity.
In addition, the school court is advancing. Judicature council is composed of the students who strongly desire a better court. As students, they know what the students generally want for the court, and what can be done to make advancements. They keep listening to the students’ ideas, communicate with the teachers about the new ideas, and bring the good ideas into practice. For example, the student participation trial started in the first semester of 2011. The court started to have five minutes of break before the admonishment of the teacher. The school court will continue to undergo advancements by the most progressive and clever students, and will eliminate the weaknesses of the court one by one.
However, the school court is not perfect. It has the internal weaknesses that the documentaries do not reveal. First, it is very difficult to find sound evidences of the defending speeches. The most popular evidence the students use in the defending speeches is the signature of the peers around them, particularly roommates. Persuading the roommates to sign for a lie is very easy. However, the judicature committee has no definite way to verify the authenticity of the defending speech. The members of the council often visit the houseparent and the student guidance teacher to ask about the genuineness of the speech, but they do not remember the specific situations. Therefore, some students fabricate the facts and circumvent the penalty points improperly. Integrity and honesty as a responsible member of the student autonomy is required to the students.
Second, distrust between the housefather and the students interferes the school court. Since some of the students whom the housefather accused escaped from getting penalty points, the housefather started to distrust the court and the students. He occasionally refused to accept the results of the trials. He scolded the student and exerted compulsory force to the judicature committee to give penalty points to the accused student. Therefore, some innocent students had unjust disadvantages. Moreover, the distrust is harming the essence of the student court, which is to let the students govern themselves. The teachers should improve their recognitions on the school court, and abandon their stereotypes and stubbornness. In addition, the students should be conscientious and law-abiding to recover the trust from the teachers.
In fact, many of the students feel very annoying to spend two hours of self-study time in the court, especially when there are so many assignments and quizzes left. However, they mostly agree that student government is the best way to keep their rights from the improper imposition of penalty points. They agree at the essence of the idea of the student autonomy, and that student court is one of the events that most clearly bring the idea into practice. KMLA should keep the tradition of the school court, and continue to make advancements to be closer to the ideal of the student autonomy judicature system.
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