In effort to educate his students Robert Foshee, civics teacher, took his classes to visit the Fresno County Courthouse to witness a trial on Dec. 6.

“The trip to the courthouse helps us get out of class and books,” Foshee said. “The students learned about how the court works and its process.”

The class began the trip with a lecture from bailiff Pat McClain. Although this was Foshee’s fourth trip, this year was the first year McClain spoke to the class. He described the judicial process, and afterwards, the judge spoke about his responsiblities.

“The judge talked about how it’s hard to make decisions when someone’s life’s at stake,” Phil Unruh, ’07, said, “and taking someone’s life doesn’t necessarily mean killing them.”

After witnessing a case trial, the students talked to the judge and viewed confiscated weapons that were brought into the courthouse.

“I think it was to show students what hateful people can be toward the law process,” Unruh said, “and how many violent people there are. Also how much passion they have and how it affects their life.”

The class was able to decide which case they wanted to witness. The options were civil, criminal, family, juvenile, probate, small claims and traffic.

“I really wanted to see a murder trial,” Rajanae Allen, ’07, said. “It just seems that it would have been the most interesting because I think it is really dramatic and also I think there is a lot of yelling. Which is fun to watch, but they didn’t let us because the recording had inappropriate language.”

After a time of questions, students viewed the committment involved in the courthouse.

“To us it’s such a boring and tedious thing,” Unruh said, “but there are people who are passionate about it.”