In the News: County judge launches Emancipation Day at NHS

About 120 students receive practical legal advice as they are set to enter the world of adulthood

In addition to presiding over and endless line of cases involving newly-minted adults, Yamhill County Circuit Court judge Ronald Stone has raised his own kids to become productive members of society, including one who is now a high school teacher.

That experience has given Stone a unique perspective on the legal problems facing new high school graduates, in particular demonstrating to him that today’s youth are not as well equipped as they could be to enter the adult world.

That’s why he launched Emancipation Day, a three-hour seminar of practical legal advice for seniors, May 1 at Newberg High School.

“It’s been sort of a pet project of mine for a couple years,” Stone said. “I just floated the idea around. Everyone thought it was a good idea, but no one would take the initiative to get it started. I’m not getting any younger, so I just went for it because I really do think it’s a great idea.”

Stone enlisted the help of 14 lawyers and experts to cover four main areas of law — work/life, immigration, family and criminal — which he believed would be most beneficial for students.

Students rotated in groups through the workshops, which each ran for 50 minutes.

“We wanted practical advice for them, everything from what to do if you get arrested — lots of people in their life will get arrested — to what to do if you get a traffic ticket to signing a lease,” Stone said. “They’ll be getting a job and they don’t know about wage and hour laws and overtime.”

In addition to learning about small claims court and mediation from attorney Mark Pihl, as well as wage and hour law and landlord-tennant issues with Oregon Law Center attorneys Trena Klohe and Danny Theimann, students learned about contracts, specifically credit cards and buying a car, from Newberg City Attorney Truman Stone.

In addition to advising students to take their time and thoroughly research a car before purchasing, Truman Stone walked the students through the ins and outs of the high-interest loans involved with credit cards, including an example of how long it would take to pay off a $2,000 bill at 20 percent interest while making only minimum payments.

“The first month’s payment is $60 and $29 of that is principal,” he said. “If you make $60/month payments it will take you 15 years to pay off a $2,000 credit-card debt, during which time you’ll pay $2,450 … in interest. I think those are the areas where you end up getting yourself into trouble.”

NHS assistant principal Dan Malone organized the event (marketing it to students as Law Day to avoid misunderstandings with the other connotations of “emancipation”). He said the event was a good start and any time people of the judge and the city attorney’s stature visit the school, students tend to take them more seriously than they would if it was coming from a high school teacher or administrator.

Students gave written feedback to Malone, including that the family law session, which included information on restraining orders and sexual consent, was relevant.

“Family law was the most helpful,” one female student reported. “Me and many of my friends go through many of those things. I find it interesting to see what the legal system says about those experiences.”

Unfortunately due to a preponderance of finals and AP Tests, about half of the approximately 240 students who signed up to participate backed out because they were too busy or felt they couldn’t miss class.

For that reason, Judge Stone plans to hold next year’s event in January. He also hopes to expand the program so that students from all high schools in the county can participate, perhaps by having satellite events at both Newberg and McMinnville high schools.

“To get the whole county covered would be pretty impressive, so good on him for getting that ball rolling,” Malone said.

Both students and presenters reported that they would like to have more time for discussions and to make the seminars more interactive, but from most accounts, the first event was a success.

“I think the kids were very interested in it,” Judge Stone said. “They won’t remember everything, but hopefully they’ll remember they’ve heard something and call somebody, like legal aid or the employment division, for assistance. That’s what we wanted.”