just saw this on my newswire----
<< Court TV Offers High School Curriculum That Addresses Youth Violence,
Including Bullying, and Other Legal Issues
The Curriculum, Based on Excerpts From the Acclaimed Television Series
'Homicide: Life on the Street,' Follows the Proven Success of Court TV's
Middle School Curriculum
NEW YORK, March 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Court TV today announced that, as part
of its award-winning public service initiative, "Choices and Consequences," it
is making available a new high school curriculum designed to keep high school
students out of our nation's courts. Bullying, which appears to have been a
major factor in the recent Santana High School shooting in Santee, CA, is one
of the issues addressed by the curriculum, which is based on taped excerpts of
the award-winning television series, "Homicide: Life on the Street." Other
topics include the importance and difficulty of being an eyewitness to a
crime, the use of force in self-defense, and the juvenile and adult court
systems.
Using the segment on bullying, students watch a video clip about a high
school basketball hero who bullied other students, one of whom then killed the
bully. The video shows police interviews with many people in the community
who might have been able to stop the bullying but did not. Students are asked
to consider what the community could have done to stop the bullying, and then
to draft a policy on bullying for their own school.
"Through our educational program, 'Choices and Consequences,' Court TV has
been involved in the efforts to reduce youth violence for four years," said
Henry Schleiff, Chairman and CEO of Court TV. "The most recent school
shootings have demonstrated once again how important this initiative is, and
we hope that high schools throughout the nation will take advantage of this
new curriculum to help ease tensions and increase safety in our schools."
The curriculum was created at the request of high school teachers across
the country who had seen the "Choices and Consequences" middle school
curriculum, which covers such issues as teen pranks, daring your friends, and
fighting. The middle school curriculum, developed in collaboration with the
National Middle School Association and based on tapes of actual trial
coverage, has now been provided to more than half of the approximately
21,000 middle schools in the United States.
A study of the middle school curriculum, conducted by the University of
California at Santa Barbara, has found that the curriculum decreased
adolescents' verbal aggression and curbed their physical aggression. It also
increased adolescents' empathic skills and increased their knowledge of the
legal system. The study concluded: "The curriculum deserves wide
dissemination and recognition as a potentially important component of the
national effort to prevent violence among adolescents."
The high school curriculum, written by Street Law, Inc., a preeminent,
non-profit curriculum developer, takes the approach that high school students
will be more captivated by episodes of the highly regarded television series
than they would be by actual trial coverage.
Both the high school and the middle school curricula can be downloaded at
courttv.com. The accompanying programming can be taped
free of charge through Court TV's Cable in the Classroom feed. A complete
package of the printed curricula and programming is also available at a
nominal cost by calling 1-800-333-7649.
Court TV (http://www.courttv.com), a basic cable network, provides a
window on the American system of justice through distinctive programming that
both informs and entertains. As the first and only cable network devoted to
crime and justice, Court TV broadcasts trials by day and crime stories in the
evening. Court TV has over 54 million subscribers, has current commitments to
reach 60 million, and expects to reach 65 million by the end of 2001.
SOURCE Court TV
/CONTACT: Betsy Vorce, 212-973-2667, vorceb@mail.courttv.com, orFrederika
Brookfield, 212-692-7867, brookfieldf@mail.courttv.com, both ofCourt TV; Henry
Miller of Goodman Media Int'l., 212-576-2700,hmiller@goodmanmedia.com, for Court
TV/
/Web site: courttv.com; |
