Lynn honors students at annual Law Day celebration

(Scroll down to see Makenzie O'Donnell's  Award-winning essay)                

By Chris Stevens / The Daily Item

LYNN - Students from five different schools were honored during Monday’s annual Law Day celebration in City Hall.

Law Day was initially established in 1958 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and is a day that courts across the country use to hold ceremonies celebrating the freedoms granted to U.S. citizens.

In Lynn, court employees and the Greater Lynn Bar Association members celebrated with students from across the school district, including kids from Classical and St. Mary’s high schools, who entered the essay contest, and Fecteau-Leary Jr./Sr. High School students, who submitted art work all focusing on this year’s Law Day theme, “The Legacy of John Adams: From Boston to Guantanamo.”

Students from Pickering Middle School, Lynn English and Classical High School were also recognized for taking part in the state’s mock trial program.

Judge Albert S. Conlon, first justice, Lynn District Court, who along with Judge Amy Nechtem, associate justice, Essex County Juvenile Court, emceed the program, called the event unique in that it was the first time the District Court and the Juvenile Court had joined together for the ceremony.

Judge Joseph F. Johnston, associate justice, Essex County Juvenile Court, singled out Fecteau-Leary Jr. Sr. High School Principal Maura Durgin-Scully and her staff for supporting students he suspect might otherwise be labeled dropouts. Instead, he said, 100 percent of students have completed the MCAS and 60 percent of seniors are heading to college.

A team of four from the school also took home the art contest prize for a 3-D rendition of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. Shop Teacher Angelo Meimeteas said he was proud of the work the kids put into the project that took three straight days of nearly non-stop work to complete. Meimeteas said student Jeremy Breen did much of the woodworking, cutting out tiny columns and stair fronts, along with pieces of the dome. Meghan Ryan concentrated on the finish work, sanding and puttying pieces into place, while Brendan Murray airbrushed the finished piece.

Mohammed Denny, he added, was the all-around worker who did whatever needed to be done on the project.

Johnston said there were 58 essays submitted for that portion of the competition and selecting a winner was a daunting task, but two emerged, Makenzie O’Donnell from Lynn Classical and Stephen Roach from St. Mary’s.

Retired Judge Joseph Dever, president of the Greater Lynn Bar Association, said the highlight of his 18½ years on the bench was participating in the mock trial program, where students act as judge, jury, witnesses and lawyers.

Dever came away impressed after watching students reenact actual court cases.

“They are so amazing,” he said.

The high school mock trial participants have completed their competition, but students at Pickering Middle School get started Thursday arguing their first case against Lynnfield middle school.

 

Makenzie O’Donnell

April 13, 2011                                            John Adams

       Describing John Adams in only a few brief words does no justice to the level of integrity and bravery this man held throughout the establishment of the United States. His very being was the sole reason the original thirteen colonies united together and rose up against the British Empire to protect their “natural, essential, and unalienable rights”. Adams’ purpose became much more than a leading Massachusetts’ rebels into battle, but to become the very spark that ignited the unification of one of the strongest countries in world. So, who exactly was this man that paved our way to freedom? And, why was his role in law so influential to the protection of our rights today?

       John Adams was so much more than a gifted leader, or  politician, he was first and for most, a Massachusetts citizen. He clearly understood the meaning of hard work and extreme sacrifice. But, he never lost sight of the most important goal he could ever achieve in his life, and that was grasp of independence in every citizen’s hands. His major political starting point began as a representative of Massachusetts in the First and Second Continental Congress (1774 and 1775). He only agreed to do so after realizing that the British had over stepped their boundaries and were now punishing the colonies for rebelling against unfair laws. Now, to fully understand John Adams, you must also understand how valuable and influential his wife, Abigail Adams, was to him. Equal in intelligence and bravery, she helped guide her husband in how to appeal to the people he was trying to persuade in following him on the path to independence. She would explain to him that no one doubted he was great man, but now he must show compassion to the people. He discovered this was the key in leading America. As the second President of the U.S. he knew the people could not just have facts, they needed to be able to level with him, American to American.

            Society and government is run by the detailed outlines set forth in the Constitution. This document was shaped to preserve the rights of men and describe the powers and restrictions of the government. On March 5, 1770, the Boston Massacre took place. John Adams was asked to defend the British soldiers in order to maintain a fair and unbiased trial. Adams decided to assist the men. Even though he was looked at as some what of a traitor, he exclaimed in his diary the “Judgment of Death against those Soldiers would have been as foul a Stain upon this Country…As the Evidence was, the Verdict of the Jury was exactly right”. Adams won the case based on evidence and the laws that govern this country. Even Abigail explained that the hardest part of this trial would be to rise above the judgment of the jury. This state of mind has carried on into the year 2011, and will continue on with the Massachusetts Constitution and the U.S. Constitution. In the Massachusetts Constitution (est. 1780, by John Adams), Article XII, and Amendment 5 of the U.S. Constitution(est. 1787 ), both outlined the rights every person has in a criminal case, “…nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”. Adams court case not only helped him establish his constitution for Massachusetts, but it also led to the protection of our “natural, essential, and unalienable rights” that we continue to maintain today.

            The statement, “I am for the law, there are no other sides”, from the series John Adams, describes the type of man he truly was. It did not matter what side was right or wrong, it mattered if the law was being broken or rights are being taken. Adams made it quite clear that every man is entitled to his express his rights, so, he set out to protect them. 

 

   p.s.  Makenzie is a student in Dr. Harutunian's Government` class.