Fighting, the Public, & You: Bowling Towards Bail?!?!
200 Kids Get In Fights After Denied Entry at Meadows Mall in Las Vegas
Pictured: A screenshot from the news broadcast of the event at Meadows Mall
In January 2021, during the middle of a pandemic where social distancing is required and crowds are discouraged, 150-200 juveniles were seen fighting outside of a business at Meadows Mall in Las Vegas. It appeared that they were waiting to go bowling when they were denied entry.
Now, it isn’t clear why they were denied entry. It could have been because of temporary occupancy laws or because of business hours. Either way the teens didn’t like being told no and became mad enough to start throwing punches. Fights broke out among the large groups and it is unclear if the fights included employees of the business.
Police were called to break up the fights and escort the teens off the property. They ended up citing or arresting several people for fighting or obstructing. Due to the disruption several businesses at the mall had to close early.
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Questions:
1. What are some other reasons these teens were denied entry?
2. Why were some kids arrested but not all 200?
3. Besides fighting, what are some other laws that could have been broken? Why?
4. How is this event happening at a mall in Las Vegas affect the outcome and the consequences?
Be sure to provide full explanations for your answers. For more details, you can read the article this piece was sourced from here:
Project REAL opened in late 2004, and by 2005 we were serving Nevada’s students by providing courthouse fieldtrips. In those first fifteen years of service, our mission was to reduce crime, protect the futures of Nevada’s youth, and make our communities safer for everyone. We did that by engaging students with lessons about laws, the consequences of breaking laws, constitutional rights, and how to exercise those rights. We still do that same work.
That mission has not changed, but our approach has evolved. With fifteen years down, we are now ready to embrace a new look that celebrates the approach our work will take for the next fifteen years, and we’d like to take a moment to tell you a bit about this change. First, let’s consider our original appearance that we are leaving behind:
Out With The Old
Our original ‘look’ was direct and straightforward, just like our work: We took students to courts where they could watch live court and speak with judges, and brought lessons into their classrooms that gave them chance to learn about laws and the consequences of breaking those laws. We provided education with a focus on the law, and spelling out our acronym with the scales of justice as iconography helped to make that clear.
That is… essentially what we do now! So, why the change? Well, let’s take a look at the new appearance we are fully embracing:
In With The New (Motto)
While we are doing the same work, our approach to that work is changing in several ways. For our first fifteen years, the majority of our lessons outside of the fieldtrips were delivered by teachers, and nearly all of our work was done directly with students. That model of service caused a bit of a problem: Teachers knew us, judges and lawyers who helepd with our field trips knew us, police officers that help teach some of our activities knew us, and even some of the students we worked with knew who we were.
The problem is with who didn’t know us: Parents! Principals! The community at large! That community awareness has been lacking, and so one of the first changes you’ll see is that we’ve adopted a tagline: Youth Excellence & Achievement Through REAL Law Experiences.
The original acronym behind our name – Relevant Education About the Law – is still what we do, however it failed to communicate who we serve and what our ultimate goal is. Now, it should be clear – We provide youth with experiences that teach them about legal matters, and those lessons help them to become the best versions of themselves. As we work to create greater awareness of our organization and our work in the community, we hope this evolved messaging will encourage parents, principals, and really any relevant stakeholders to reach out and request our resources.
Clearly though, adopting a motto has not been the only change to our appearance. So, what’s with the new iconography?
A New Logo, A Revised & Expanded Approach
Our first fifteen years of service was focused on teaching students laws and the consequences of breaking those laws. Most of the work took place during our courthouse fieldtrips or in classrooms using our Play By the Rules activity. The courthouse fieldtrips would have been mostly ineffective were it not for the judges and lawyers that spoke with the students we brought, and Play By the Rules was always more impactful when police officers would join the classrooms to guest teach the lessons.
Whether for an hour or so during the field trips or over several days as part of Play By the Rules, we viewed these student and law professional interactions as a form of mentor based learning, and that brings us to our new look. As wonderful as it would be to have students memorize each law and the consequences of breaking it, that would simply be impossible: attorneys go through years of schooling (including law school) and most will tell you there is always more to learn, if only because the law is forever changing. Even then, giving students a list of laws is just uninspiring, if not an out-right dare to those of them going through a more rebellious phase.
The fact of the matter is that the mentor based learning opportunities we were providing were build around experiences in conversationand thoughtful engagement. It is those elements – those of conversation and thoughtful engagement – that have driven the development of our newer resources and the revisions to older ones. Giving students a list of rules or laws to follow will work for some, but engaging students by giving them a voice in their own futures is how we have succeeded in making positive impacts upon their lives. That appreciation for and acknowledgement of the power of conversation and the value of giving students their own agency in matters of choice and consequences is why we chose the logo we did: one that celebrates mentorship and engagement that moves the conversations forward in a positive direction.
We sincerely appreciate having had the privilege of serving Nevada over the last 15 years. Now, we hope you will join us as we look towards the next 15, which are sure to be an adventure! If you would like to see what our next 15 years of service looks like, consider exploring the page that explains our project here. If you are already excited and would like to support our work (at a cost of just $25 per student served!), you may make a donation here.
A DC Resident Dies After Getting Struck in the Head By an At Home Firework
Pictured: An infographic from the DC County fire department showing how many firework accidents end in burns
Two holidays a year have the tradition of setting off fireworks, New Years and the Fourth of July. For both holidays people can gather around certain areas of the city or town to watch a controlled, colorful display of fireworks. These events are armed with firefighters in case something happens that causes a fire to start. It is very common for ash or a spark to set a fire which is why these displays are left to the professionals. Around these times, Fourth of July especially, people buy sparklers and bottle rockets to celebrate in their own yards. Some states sell fireworks legally but in most states it is illegal to buy and set off fireworks. Each year, there are many injuries and deaths caused by people setting off illegal fireworks.
On July 4, 2020 a man in DC was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries caused by fireworks that he was setting off at home. Doctors tried their hardest to save this man’s life but ultimately he had suffered a severe injury to the head and died a few days later. His death was ruled an accident.
The Metropolitan Police Chief Peter Newsham stated that 57% of injuries from illegal fireworks are burns. In Dc on July 4th, 2019 there were nine serious incidents reported involving multiple children and in 2020 an 11-year-old girl was rushed to the hospital with second degree burns on her shoulders and neck.
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Questions:
1. What is Nevada’s policy on buying and selling fireworks?
2. What type of things happen legally when someone is injured due to illegal fireworks? Does that change if the person injured is a child?
3. Say your family has a party on the Fourth of July with several families with kids and your dad buys fireworks to set off. What would happen legally if a child that is not related to you gets injured by the fireworks?
Be sure to provide full explanations for your answers. For more details, you can read the article this piece was sourced from here:
The board and staff of Project REAL mourn the loss of Las Vegas visionary businessman and philanthropist Irwin Molasky who, along with his good friend Sam Lionel, founded our organization because of their unabiding faith in the young people of Nevada.
Irwin loved our community as only someone who built it could. Creating this organization fifteen years ago showed he was ahead of his time in seeing the need to cultivate more understanding among law enforcement, the courts, and our young people.
Because of Irwin’s vision, more than 185,000 Nevada youth have learned about their rights and responsibilities under U.S. and Nevada law through the interactive and immersive experiences of Project REAL at no cost to them, their families, their teachers, or their schools, making Nevada a safer place for all of us.
It is a testament to Irwin’s unrelenting commitment to our community, state, and country, that, at an age when most people are immersing themselves in the comforts of retirement, he was still hard at work, looking for ways to improve lives, and developing solutions like Project REAL. While we only had fifteen years working with Irwin, learning from him, and being mentored by him, we relished every interaction. Irwin was a true patriot who led by example and whose generosity was inspirational.
We have been fortunate to have had the privilege to carry out Irwin’s vision over the last fifteen years, and now we will ensure that his legacy lives on through our continued work in the community.
Sincerely,
Tom Kovach
Executive Director
With generous support from Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for The Arts, Project REAL was able to pilot a new mock trial last year: Baby Shark Burns V Bark-André Furry – The Case of the Broken Hockey Stick. Although the pandemic crisis cut the pilot short, we are comfortable launching this third grade resource in-full for the 2020-2021 school year throughout Nevada.
How it normally works is simple: A school representative (usually the third grade chair) contacts us and requests the trial. ‘The trial’ is actually a set of containers with scripts, costumes, and other supplies needed for an immersive experience. The teacher checks out the ‘Trial in a Trunk’ boxes, uses them at their school, then returns them to Project REAL. We clean everything and quickly send the box out again.
That was before COVID-19 entered everyone’s vocabulary.
At Project REAL the health and safety of students and teachers is our number one concern, so obviously things have to change. For the coming school year, Keeping in mind that COVID-19 can survive on hard surfaces for up to 10 days, the organization will only be checking out their Trial in a Trunk, to one school at a time.
Once the containers are returned to our office, they will be quarantined for a minimum of two weeks. Although that will reduce the number of students that are able to participate in trials using our costumes, we are also making the scripts available digitally to all third grade teachers who want their students to have the experience. Furthermore, we have some simple costume art project activities that we will be suggesting for use, and encourage anyone with a great idea for costume alternatives to submit those solutions to us.
Like all of our services, this experience will be free to teachers and class rooms across the state.
To learn more about this or any of our academic resources, please feel free to contact our Senior Director Mike Kamer at mkamer@projectrealnv.org
Young Man Dies Following BB Gun Tragedy
Pictured: A BB Gun and box of BB-pellets. People have treated these as toys for years, but they can be used to kill.
BB guns are a type of rifle that are treated as toys since they only use air to shoot small metal balls, rather than relying on the explosive force that gives bullets their fatal speeds.
An unfortunate incident involving a BB gun in Tampa, Florida led to a 17 year old dying after he was shot in the eye with one. Although the majority of accidents involving BB guns are the result of the gun handlers failing to use eye protection, that wasn’t the case here. The young man died as a result of his family-friend in the back seat – who was 8 years old – accidentally causing the gun to go off.
The two had been riding in the car with the 17-year-old friend-of-the-family in the front seat, and the adult driver’s children (including the 8 year old) riding in the back. The incident began as the adult driver pulled up to an ATM and exited the car, leaving the minors unsupervised.
The youngest in the back seat, the 8-year-old was attempting to move the BB gun not knowing that it was loaded. When the child moved the gun, it fired off a BB striking the 17-year-old front-passenger in the eye.
BB guns are widely seen as toys. In reality, they are capable of major damage to property and (as is the case here) to lives. The companies that manufacture these devices often recommend the use of eye protection and to keep them out of the reach of young children. Keeping a BB gun in the back seat of a car and accessible to unsupervised minors is a scenario that is not recommended.
The 8-year old who caused the gun to go off didn’t mean for it to do that. Reports say the child explained they had been moving it out of the way so that they wouldn’t step on it and cause it to break when the incident occurred.
Regardless of the circumstance, there is a 17-year-old boy who lost his life because of an oversight of the adult in the car keeping a BB gun in their back seat.
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Questions:
1: Why should someone be charged – or why shouldn’t they be charged – in the death of the 17 year old in this case? Who is really to blame if anyone: the 8 year old, the adult driver who had left the BB gun in the back seat to begin with, or no one? Explain your answer.
2: If the adult driver had left a real firearm in the back seat, what would change about the case – how might it be handled differently?
3: In the state of Nevada, what are some of the minimum and maximum consequences would the adult face for leaving a minor in the back seat with a loaded firearm accessible?
4: If the boy had been an adult themselves and shot a minor, what are the maximum and minimum charges they could face, if any?
A Man In Texas Pushes Ranger Off a Dock After Being Asked To Socially Distance
Pictured: 25-year-old Brandon Hicks pushing park ranger Cassidy Stillwell off of a dock
Park rangers are just as important to maintaining a crime free society as police officers and should be treated with the same amount of respect. Often around lakes, national parks, and state parks park rangers are found to not only protect wildlife but to also enforce laws. In Austin, Texas at Commons Ford Ranch Metro Park during the summer of 2020 a 25 year old man, Brandon Hicks, pushed a park ranger Cassidy Stillwell, into Lake Austin.
Stillwell approached a group of young adults that appeared to be “unlawfully drinking and smoking” as well as not practicing 6-feet social distancing. He asked them to disperse and several members of the group apologized and said they would be more mindful. Hicks, on the other hand, proceeded to push Stillwell into the lake. It is unclear if he was a part of this group or simply a bystander that reacted poorly. Hicks was pulled into the water by Stillwell. He scrambled out and ran off, later to be arrested.
Hicks later stated to be “embarrassed by his actions and has the utmost respect for law enforcement.” He was charged with attempted assault on a public servant which is a state jail felony. If found guilty, he could face up to two years in state jail.
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Questions:
1. Were Hicks actions reasonable? Why or why not?
2. What other laws did Hicks possibly break? What about Nevada’s laws? Explain
3. What other charges could he have been charged with if this happened in Nevada?
Be sure to provide full explanations for your answers. For more details, you can read the article this piece was sourced from here:
My favorite part of the fieldtrip to the courthouse is when I got to play the part of Ron. I got to go on the witness chair and speaking. I helped Potter to be not guilty. Thank you for the great opportunity.
- Johnathan M [Harmon Elementary - Grade 4]
Project Real
2020-12-16T21:47:04+00:00
My favorite part of the fieldtrip to the courthouse is when I got to play the part of Ron. I got to go on the witness chair and speaking. I helped Potter to be not guilty. Thank you for the great opportunity. - Johnathan M [Harmon Elementary - Grade 4]
Thank you for letting us experience court for the first time. It was the best experience ever, thank you for everything. You really made me think about being a judge. Thank you
-Mina L [ Twitchell Elementary - Grade 5]
Project Real
2020-12-16T22:04:09+00:00
Thank you for letting us experience court for the first time. It was the best experience ever, thank you for everything. You really made me think about being a judge. Thank you -Mina L [ Twitchell Elementary - Grade 5]
Thank you for letting us watch the civil case! It was cool because it was a real case and not one played out. I had a lot of fun watching the other kids act out a session. Thank you for your time.
- Kaylie [Hewetson Elementary - Grade 5]
Project Real
2020-12-11T20:39:35+00:00
Thank you for letting us watch the civil case! It was cool because it was a real case and not one played out. I had a lot of fun watching the other kids act out a session. Thank you for your time. - Kaylie [Hewetson Elementary - Grade 5]
