Syracuse University College of Law partners with Syracuse City School District and Attorney General’s Office

Syracuse University College of Law partners with Syracuse City School District and Attorney General’s OfficeSeptember 29, 2005Jaclyn D. Grossojgrosso@law.syr.edu

In an effort to reduce abuse and violence in area high schools, the Syracuse City School District (SCSD) and Syracuse University College of Law are partnering with the New York State Attorney General’s Office to administer the Students Against Violence Initiative (SAVI) for all of the Syracuse city high schools. There are five student courts in the city high schools-Henninger, Fowler, Nottingham, Corcoran, and Corcoran’s 9th-grade Leadership Class-which serve as an alternative to suspension programs and allow students to go in front of a court of their peers to be held accountable for negative behavior.

Now in its second year, the SAVI program is part of the Criminal Justice Teaching Fellowships in the College of Law. Each year, four third-year law students are chosen to teach the program and assist the student courts in the SCSD. The 2005-06 Fellows are Diane Aboushi, of Staten Island, N.Y.; Melissa Arnold, of Parsons, West Va., Meghan MacBlane, of Liverpool, N.Y.; and Jason Pope, of Spotswood, N.J. Each Fellow has received significant scholarship support from the College of Law.

To welcome the four new law students to the program, Galen Kirkland, director of program development for the Intergovernmental Relations Bureau of the Office of the New York State Attorney General, will be speaking to the new Fellows this Friday, Sept. 30 at 11:30 a.m., in the College of Law’s White Conference Room.

“SAVI allows our students to gain experience outside of the classroom and truly supports our local high schools,” says Dean Hannah Arterian. “These are exceptional students who understand the benefits of legal education as a public good.”

The office of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer created the SAVI program in 2000 as an effort to eliminate violence and abuse in New York State high schools. This initiative is also supported by the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of New York.