Vermilion Parish teens needed to help with Teen Court

The newly created Vermilion Parish Teen Court is looking for teens to help make teen court a success.
Juvenile detention centers are overcrowded, suffer a lack of funding, and create a disparity between holding young adults accountable or maintaining a sustainable youth justice system. Enter smaller, adaptable avenues of justice.
Youth justice programs like Teen Court have become a new approach to addressing minor juvenile offenses. Justice for teens, by teens.
Vermilion Parish is in search of teens (grades 9th through 12th) to run teen court work in the parish.
Teen court allows the opportunity for teens to learn and practice in a courtroom setting as a lawyer, judge, prosecutor, defender, bailiff or jury member.
The offender walks into the Abbeville courtroom admitting guilt, but instead of an adult at the helm, they see teens their age and older (up to 18) serving as the judge, jury, bailiff, and attorneys. The underlying theory of teen court is that young offenders respond in a more positive way to judgment given by their peers.
Teen court operates through cases handed down by the prosecutors for nonviolent offenders and first time risk-takers. An intake is done between the Program Director and the family and a court date is scheduled. The student must plead guilty. Consequences include hours of community service that has to be served under supervision, and sessions of teen court.
Vermilion Parish Teen Court is the little sister of the already established New Iberia Teen Court. Founded as part of an outreach program, New Iberia Teen Court has had proven success with nonviolent student offenders who, when their sentence is completed, often ask to stay in the Teen Court program and continue to participate in the court process and mentor their peers.
The teen program operates with the goal to ease the burden of discipline within the school system and offer real solutions to some of our more serious teen offenses: vaping, bullying, and committing petty crimes. Through counseling, adult mentorships and enforceable contract consequences, parents and guardians have hope that these first-time crimes won’t turn into a lifetime of trouble.
If interested, call these phone numbers 337-398-9669 or 337-654-5910.