News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
FINISHED (LS 2/20)
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Warren County High School students sat in on a criminal court trial to understand better the role of attorneys and judges.
Warren County General Sessions Judge Ryan Moore said students shadowed him and interacted with attorneys before watching the trial from the gallery. He said this experience is invaluable for teenage students interested in becoming part of the judicial system.
“There’s no substitute for on-the-job training and seeing this firsthand,” Moore said. “We can read about what a lawyer does, what a police officer does, but until you’re, you know, in the actual environment, you really don’t know. Even being in law school, you know, law school doesn’t teach you how to be a lawyer. It’s being in the courtroom on a daily basis.”
He said the students are members of Warren County’s Teen Court Program. Moore said this is the first time students have been able to sit in on a real criminal court docket and trial. He said Juvenile Court Director Barry Dishman and Youth Services Officer Tara Mullins have helped revitalize the program with events like this one.
He said these students have participated in trials where they adjudicated peers charged with minor offenses. Now, those students have seen what a full-scale criminal trial looks like.
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Smoke alarms are more accessible than ever thanks to the Get Alarmed Program, available across the Upper Cumberland.
Central View Deputy Chief Kyle Winnett said the State Fire Marshal’s office provides fire departments with smoke alarms that they will install in homes free upon request. Winnett said it is important to have a working fire alarm in a region that relies so heavily on volunteer firefighters.
“Especially in these rural areas, if we have a quick notification of a, of an incident to the public, then it gets them out of the residence before we can ever get there,” Winnett said. “We have great response times, but we are still volunteer and we’re responding from our homes and our businesses and things like that.”
Winnett said a smoke alarm is still the best defense there is to keep people safe in the event of a fire. He said the smoke alarms they are giving out now have batteries that last for ten years and cannot be removed.
“It’s a sealed battery, and it’s supposed to be, of course, it’s man-made, it’s like anything else, it can fail,” Winnett said. “But it has a sealed, ten-year battery.”
