Kansas Supreme Court justice teaches dramatic lesson

The Kansas Supreme Court justice told the high school student to take the cigarette lighter out of her handbag.

“Show it to everybody, make sure everybody sees the incriminating evidence,” the justice said. Next, it was a pack of Pall Malls, followed by a package of rolling papers.

“Back in my day, if you had these on you, you were going to be in trouble,” the justice said, smiling.

Meet Carol Beier, Kansas Supreme Court justice and, occasionally, high school drama coach.

On Tuesday, Beier coached about a dozen Haven High School students through a stage presentation to introduce them and 250 of their classmates to the American judicial system. Under Beier’s guidance, they re-enacted an actual case that started with two girls smoking cigarettes in a high school bathroom and ended with a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision empowering school officials to search students suspected of possessing marijuana.

Beier and the other six Kansas justices were in Reno County on Tuesday for a special session in Hutchinson to hear two local court cases that are being argued on appeal. But before the evening court session, justices fanned out individually to high schools and Hutchinson Community College to talk to students about the court system and their role in it.

Beier has done the road show about a dozen times and is reputed to have the most dramatic flair for it. It was on display in Haven.

With students playing the roles of defendant, lawyers, judges and justices, Beier walked them through the various steps of the case of New Jersey v. TLO, a 1985 search-and-seizure case that helped set the rules for public school officials to search students.

TLO was a juvenile offender caught with marijuana and a list of classmate-customers in her purse when school officials searched her after she was found smoking in the bathroom. Her lawyers argued the evidence was illegally gathered and should have been suppressed.

The Haven student body acted as the Supreme Court and voted on how to rule. The students sided with the school officials by a fair margin – roughly mirroring the real court’s 6-3 verdict.

Afterward, 17-year-old senior Victoria Yoder, who played the part of TLO, said she learned a lot about courts, although teenage drug “queenpin” was a bit of an uncomfortable fit for her.

“It’s a little strange, because I’m not really – I don’t do that kind of stuff at all,” she said, laughing.

One disappointment for the students: Beier wouldn’t say how she would have voted in the TLO case.

She explained that one of the real cases she would hear later in the day also hinges on the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure, and she couldn’t comment without violating judicial ethics rules.

This story was originally published October 4, 2016 at 6:40 PM with the headline "Kansas Supreme Court justice teaches dramatic lesson."