Do you have an electric chair here?
How about a guillotine?
Can kids be put in jail?
District Court Judge Jeanie Houston fielded the questions one by one. No, there’s not an electric chair here. We don’t have a guillotine, either. She explained the differences between being charged as a juvenile and as an adult and when one youngster asked what kind of clothes she wore under her robe, Judge Houston unzipped to reveal her sweater and slacks set.
Then, Judge Houston got the chance to ask her own questions.
Does anyone here know how laws are made?
Sure enough, she got a reply that was right on the money.
How many of you would like to be police officers? Several hands, a little more than half the group, shot up. How many of you would like to be lawyers? A few more children raised their hands.
Nearly seventy students and teachers from the North Wilkesboro school took part Friday afternoon in the tour of the Wilkes County Court House, where they visited a courtroom, holding cell, clerk’s office and the register of deeds.
“I look so forward to doing this every year,” Judge Houston said later. “I love doing this and I love holding court for our Big Bad Wolf trials. The kids have an interest in what we do here that’s just incredible. A lot of times, they come in with the preconceived notions that they’ve got from TV and when they get here, they find out what the court system is really all about.”
