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Belmont/Jackson Heights

This school has crime written into curriculum

Franklin Middle, a law studies and public service magnet school, brings crime-fighting techniques to classrooms.

By ELISABETH DYER
Published May 6, 2005

Seventh-grader Tawney Medina rolls a classmate's thumb across an ink pad and then onto paper at Franklin Middle School.

Get the entire print, says forensics teacher Dan Mathis Jr., a former sheriff's deputy.

"Bad guys in the past have used sandpaper or acid to erase their thumbprints, but there's still a unique pattern on (thumb) sides," he said.

Tawney has dreamed of being a lawyer since she was a little girl. "Now I just want to be the head prosecuting attorney," said Tawney, a big fan of Law & Orde >r and CSI.

Classmate Jean Acosta, who watches Judge Mathis and Judge Judy, said he hopes to be a criminal defense lawyer.

"I want to be on the big-time cases - ones like the Michael Jackson - and make a lot of money," he said.

As students at Hillsborough's first law studies and public service magnet school on 21st Avenue, they might get their wish.

This week, Franklin students celebrated National Law Week with daily legal trivia quizzes, bulletin board competitions and guest speakers, including Assistant Public Defender John Skye. Judge Joelle Ober was expected to speak today.

When planning the district's newest middle magnet program last year, many people in the community wanted a legal theme, said Barbara Brown, magnet administrative resource teacher for the district. Lacking a model in Florida, they sought local professionals to design the curriculum.

"It's a new theme for middle schools in Florida," Brown said. "There is nothing like it."

Students interested in legal careers can now advance from Franklin to the international law studies magnet program at Jefferson High School.

"What we're trying to do is get kids thinking about careers as quick as they can," Brown said.

Felicia Yanger helped design the curriculum. She left a 20-year career as a lawyer, including a former Hillsborough County prosecutor, to begin a legal studies program at Blake High School in 1992.

Now she uses her contacts and experience as Franklin's magnet lead teacher.

"In the past, for a lot of our students, their only exposure to the law might have been negative," Yanger said. "What we are trying to do is to show them anything is possible for them, that they can be lawyers, they can be judges, they can be police officers."

She brings in old friends and maintains business partners, such as lawyers from Holland & Knight and the state attorney and public defender's offices.

Students see demonstrations by the sheriff's bomb disposal team, the FBI and a canine unit. They participate in mock trials and take field trips to the county courthouse and Stetson University College of Law's Tampa campus.

"Our quest is to infuse our dual themes of law study and service in every discipline at this school," Yanger said.

In Karen Barnett's reading classes, students study the history of Alcatraz and analyze evidence as they read You Be the Jury by Marvin Miller.

In science class, they discuss cloning, laws against body piercing for children and euthanasia. In math, they determine the speed of cars in accidents by measuring skid marks.

Specialized classes focus on court procedures, police operations and forensics, the most popular.

"Since CSI is the rage, so is forensics class," Yanger said.

Elisabeth Dyer can be reached at 226-3321 or edyer@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 5, 2005, 01:31:12]