2010.11.08
Local bar associations bring Rule of Law project to civics students in Roanoke Valley
The Rule of Law project is on track to reach all middle school civics students in the Roanoke Valley. Here is a press release from the Salem-Roanoke County Bar Association:
The Salem/Roanoke County Bar Association and the Roanoke Bar Association have recruited volunteer judges and attorneys to present the Virginia Bar Association’s Rule of Law Project to every public middle school civics class in the Roanoke Valley on November 12, 2010.
Volunteers for the project include a judge of the United State Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, a federal Bankruptcy judge, several current and retired judges of the local state trial courts, and attorneys from a wide variety of practice backgrounds.
The Rule of Law Project is a multi-faceted program designed to inspire students to become active citizens by helping them appreciate and protect the rights we enjoy under our laws and the responsibilities we share as American citizens. Developed by the VBA in a two-year pilot program in several localities including the Roanoke Valley, this year the Rule of Law
project is being presented in communities throughout the Commonwealth with the assistance of local bar associations. The VBA awarded ten grants to local bar groups to assist in this effort, including one for a joint application by the two principal attorney associations in the Roanoke
Valley.
The Rule of Law Project functions as a partnership among teachers, lawyers and judges to provide students in middle school civics classes with an enriching, interactive experience about the importance of the rule of law in their daily lives and gives them a better understanding of the need to preserve and protect it as the foundation for the rights and freedoms we enjoy. In each class, a judge or lawyer serves as volunteer teacher. The volunteer is provided with a brief video presentation featuring a teenage narrator who speaks directly to the students about the concepts of the rule of law in vignettes interspersed with excerpts from interviews with Chief
Justice Leroy R. Hassell, Sr. and Senior Justice Elizabeth B. Lacy of the Supreme Court of Virginia, former Virginia Governor Gerald Baliles, and VBA Past President and Roanoke attorney Mike Pace. After presenting the video, the judge or lawyer speaks to the students about his or her role in supporting the rule of law. Lesson plans for both the volunteers and the
classroom teachers are available through VBA’s website and include guides to help tie the concepts of the Rule of Law Project to the Standards of Learning curriculum.
