By Maya Kostov

Throughout your life, you do things or make decisions that you’re not proud of, and sometimes you have to own up to your mistakes. Tempe Prep’s Teen Court is a municipal program for first-time juvenile committers of crimes.

It is basically a lower-stakes version of a normal court, and they may be assigned community service hours, projects, essays, letters or anything to help restore the community around them rather than just punish then for whatever they did wrong.

In previous years, Teen Court has been mostly run by Mrs. Moffitt, and a couple National Honor Society members would help out, but this is the first year that there has been a Teen Court president, a position filled by Emma Moriarty. She says that she has made it a lot more structured. Leadership roles, and basically what everyone is doing in the court room, can be signed up months in advance, there is attendance at every meeting, and she goes around during the Teen Court just to help everyone understand what is going on.

Even though the program is still the same, it definitely runs more efficiently. The kids who find themselves in Teen Court are commonly there for shoplifting, assault, trespassing, drugs, or alcohol. Many of the kids feel very remorseful for their actions and are up to trying to better their community the way the jury sees fit.

When asked about her experiences on the jury, Emma said, “I have been a part of the jury a few times. It’s great to be able to give these students the chance at restoring the harm done to the community while also giving them the opportunity to become a better or more educated individual.”

Emma also says the main thing she has learned from Teen Court is that you cannot learn very much about a person’s character just from the title of the crime they have done. Teen Court is very judgment free and she says it can be very eye-opening that way.

It’s amazing what these NHS members are doing to connect and better their community, and help some kids along the way.