Phi Alpha Delta Public Service Center

The Phi Alpha Delta Public Service Center (PADPSC) develops and implements LRE programs that teach students from kindergarten through grade 12 conflict resolution, communication, and antiviolence skills. As the Nation’s largest law fraternity, Phi Alpha Delta is uniquely positioned to recruit and train attorneys and law students for participation in Youth for Justice LRE programs. PADPSC provides training, technical assistance, specialized program development, and information dissemination to educators; administrators; elementary, middle, and high school students; attorneys; law students; judges; community service organizations; law enforcement officials; and juvenile justice practitioners.

Program Highlights

The Elementary Student/Law Student Law-Related Education Initiative pairs law students with fifth-grade classes to teach students how the law operates in a number of different situations. The legal concepts connected to contract, consumer, torts, criminal, and trial law and rule and law making are discussed.

The Youth Court Initiative recruits nationally for attorney and law student volunteers to participate in and support local youth or teen courts. PADPSC uses its database of alumni and current law students for promotional mailings and publishes announcements about volunteer opportunities in the Phi Alpha Delta Reporter and in State bar association journals.

Publications

Respect, Reflect, Resolve contains 10 antiviolence lessons to help students in middle and high schools learn to peacefully resolve conflicts, including family violence, international conflict, and sexual harassment, through mediation and creative thinking. Conflict resolution skills are taught through a series of inclusive, interactive lessons. The publication also includes guidelines for setting up a school-based peer mediation program, tips for nonteachers to be effective classroom resources, and tips for working with special at-risk students.

Respect Me, Respect Yourself teaches history (with an emphasis on the Bill of Rights) and conflict resolution skills to elementary-level students. The teacher’s guide includes warmup activities, cross-curriculum advice, and guidelines for establishing school-based peer mediation programs.

Antidote: Civic Responsibility—Drug Avoidance Lessons for Middle and High Schools helps students understand the consequences of using alcohol and other drugs in nine interactive lessons. The lessons, ranging from small-group activities to mock trials, place students in the roles of judges, attorneys, law enforcement officers, jurors, and parents. State-specific supplements (available for all States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico) contain specific cases, statutes, and penalties.

Teaching About the Bill of Rights in Elementary and Middle School—A Resource Guide for Lawyers, Law Students and Teachers includes 11 interactive lessons about the Bill of Rights for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. It teaches democratic values, positive attitudes toward the law and the legal system, and civic responsibility.

Freedom, Fairness and Equality—Constitutional Law Resource Guide is a research tool that contains subject-matter summaries, case briefs, and discussion questions on U.S. Supreme Court cases that deal with equal protection, due process, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion.

Lesson Plan of the Month was published by PADPSC from 1992 to 1997, from August to May (during the school year). Each stand-alone, ready-to-use lesson for secondary-level classrooms is based on a headline topic. Attached elementary adaptation guides make the lessons useful for all grade levels. Some of the featured topics are international conflict, domestic violence, sports and the law, prisoners’ rights, school violence, stalking, guns, media violence, school prayer, gangs, freedom of speech, hate crimes, balanced budget, and copyright law.

Youth for Justice	Juvenile Justice Bulletin • April 2001