We started the morning at George Junior Republic, a residential educational and treatment facility: the easiest way to describe it is as a boarding school which provides additional counselling for at risk children. Pupils can be referred there by the court system or their school, and GJR runs a standard school curriculum for grades 6-12. They even hold graduation ceremonies for pupils who complete their education there. The facility is impressive - aside from the education buildings, pupils are housed in cottages with full time support staff. Class sizes are limited to 6-7 pupils, and both James and myself were surprised by the calm and quiet (much quieter than the school I went to). It was great to speak to a number of staff and get a better idea of the work they're doing, and their place in the legal/education system over here. Our thanks to everyone involved in arranging the visit for us.
After George Junior Republic we moved on to Tompkins County Community College - also known as TC3. James and I met up with the rest of the team, before Rotarian Bob Ross and Mick McDaniel gave us a tour of their recently completed sporting facility. It was stunning and certainly put my university to shame. It was impressive to see the dedication that they have for sport over here and the walls are covered with trophies earned by their basketball, softball, and soccer teams among others (Go Panthers!). We then had a tour of the library and central buildings, with Helen disappearing into the security department for a while (she did look very suspicious).
For lunch we went to Farrell's in Groton, before the team split up again. James and I spent the afternoon with Judge A. D. Dawson, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Bonavia and Liam Murray, a local attorney. They took us to the Groton Town Court before spending the afternoon talking us through criminal trial procedure, from initial arrest through arraignment. It was great to get all three viewpoints on the process, and to compare it with our system back home. I think that we finally understand the bail system (in theory if not in practise), and I hope that we were clear in explaining the differences with the system back home.
After a quick break at Terry Donlick's (my new host, and the team leader for the 7170 GSE team), we headed off to the first annual GSE bowling competition. Aside from us Brits, there were teams from Dryden, Ithaca and Groton Rotary club, as well as Vicky and Amy from the 7170 team. Dryden went on to win, with Team GSE 2 (Caroline, Amy and myself) placing a credible second.
The Winning Team receive their trophy
Dewey and Chris - supportive of my appalling game
It was great to see so many familiar faces from the past few days (and I should probably apologise to Dewey, Dale and Chris after my disastrous second game). Thoroughly tired, we eventually called it a night.
Hey! You went to my alma mater. Oddly enough, I graduated with my A.A.S. in Hotel and Restaurant Management from TC3 just in 2005. I was a non-traditional student. That's the politically correct term for someone who didn't go to college or a university immediately upon graduation from high school.
ReplyDeleteAnd I noticed you didn't mention that GSE 2 only beat GSE 1 by a mere point! Funny, that. :)