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With an eye toward appealing to children with an interest in the law, Kids’ Voice of Indiana held its third free summer law camp this week.
The virtual camp included presentations on family law, indigenous people and the law and piracy and maritime law.
Libby Whitaker, secretary for Kids’ Voice of Indiana, said that the idea of the free law camp for kids began in 2020.
It was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the group assumed children at home were bored sitting at home in their houses all summer with nothing to do.
“We wanted to give them an opportunity to learn a little bit more about the law and have something to do,” Whitaker said.
The first year Kids’ Voice of Indiana held the camp, the group broadcast it on Facebook Live.
The camp was less interactive but still attracted a good turnout, Whitaker said.
She said that last year, there was also a good turnout with the children being engaged with the camp’s presentations and activities.
“I was amazed by all of their questions and things they thought of. Based on some of the things that they’ve asked us, during our presentations, we’ve been able to come up with more topics as we’ve gone along and sort of gauge what they’re interested in and it’s just kind of kept going from there,” Whitaker said.
In one of the presentations at this year’s camp, an attorney at Kids’ Voice taught the children about who can legally tell children what to do through the Disney movie Coco.
They also discussed custody and guardianship and the 14th Amendment.
The kids asked questions like “what if there is no parent or guardian?”
Marion County Magistrate Judge Lena Pratt Sanders gave a presentation on what justice is and what it means.
“The kids seem to love to interact with real judicial officers and get to ask them questions about what it’s like to be a judge and that sort of thing. So that has been really good exposure, I think, for kids to be able to see that these are real people every day who are doing this job,” Whitaker said.
While being virtual creates flexibility, Whitaker said the group hopes to move to an in-person model eventually.
“We would like to move it to an in person and maybe do sort of like a dual in-person, virtual thing so that there is more opportunity for people to participate,” Whitaker said. “I think where we see it going in the future would really, really love to establish a curriculum.”
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