Teaching Civil Liberties

Students have constitutional protections when it comes to dealing with law enforcement, we must help them exercise them in a responsible and informed manner

Good teachers know that the best learning happens when students are engaged and the instruction is relevant and connected to their lives. Engaged students learn more, retain more, and are more likely to apply and share their learning with others. 

In the fall of 2014, following the deaths of Eric Garner and Mike Brown and in response to the anxiety and curiosity of my students, I began to rethink the way I taught civil liberties. My students had questions about the limits and checks on the power of law enforcement and how they should respond, if at all, when they were pulled over or questioned by police.

In 2015, using resources from Flex Your Rights and the ACLU, I delivered my first workshop on dealing with the police. The response was immediate. Students who never spoke up in class were full of questions and everyone in the room was engaged in meaty, real-world conversations about the intent of the Founders and esoteric questions like "what would John Locke say about civil asset forfeiture?" 

Over the last few years, my workshops have gained attention from the press, but the need for this teaching remains dire. Last year, depending on whom is counting, US police killed between 900 to 1200 people. The vast, vast majority of these killings were ruled justified under state and local laws, but the laws are part of the problem. We are alone in the industrialized world in allowing the routine use of deadly force on citizens. The causes are many: a trigger happy US gun culture, fear among officers, easy access to guns for criminals via the informal market, racial and class bias, the Tueller Drill ethos, societal indifference to the victims, etc. Regardless, this issue is full of teachable moments for our students and communities. 

The Bill of Rights dedicates full five amendments to issues regarding the rights of the accused (Amendments IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII); by teaching my students about their rights and responsibilities regarding law enforcement we are honoring the words of Madison and the Founders. This is rich, authentic learning and among the most important teaching I do all year. Below you will find resources that I have used and collected in my Syllabus for Students in Dealing with Law Enforcement.

Note: I don't endorse everything in these resources, but I offer them to you for your perusing, learning, and evaluation.