Students Lead the Way Through Teen Court

Article by Social Worker Lizzy Kroll

Sheboygan County Teen Court is a collaborative effort between Sheboygan County Circuit Court Judge Natasha Torry, the Sheboygan Area School District, and Health and Human Services Youth Justice, facilitated by Social Worker Lizzy Kroll. This Youth Justice alternative aims to promote youth development and uses restorative justice practices in response to youth behavior, rather than traditional punitive responses like a citation or a law enforcement referral to Youth Justice. The Teen Court program began in January 2025 and was piloted at that time with students at Sheboygan South High School. Last September, the program expanded to include students at Sheboygan North High School. Since then, 24 students have volunteered approximately 180 hours to this initiative.

Youth are eligible to participate in the Teen Court process if they commit a first-time misdemeanor offense, admit to their actions, and have parental consent. The goal of the Teen Court process is not to determine innocence or guilt, but to identify assignments referred youth must complete in order to repair harm or learn skills so as to not repeat their actions in the future. Historically, school staff have identified eligible students to refer to the program for school-based offenses. This will be widened starting this school year to include community-based incidents. Since it began, 24 referred students have participated in Teen Court.

Once a youth is referred, youth and their parents or guardians will attend a court hearing that is facilitated by Judge Torry, but fully operated by student volunteers from South and North High School. These volunteers act as prosecuting and defense attorneys, clerk/bailiffs, and jury members and will decide the assignments their referred peers receive. The only mandatory requirement is serving on future Teen Court juries. This allows youth referred to the program to experience being a part of the decision-making process and is an empathy-building experience. Other potential requirements could include: completing community service, writing impact statements, completing online classes, participating in community or school prosocial activities, or completing assignments related to the offense. Referred youth will have 60 days to complete the requirements. If they do so successfully, they will be diverted from receiving a citation, referral, or Youth Justice supervision.

Both volunteers and referred students have expressed positive feedback about participating in Teen Court. Many referred students have reported the Teen Court process allowed them to see that others are also struggling, which made them feel less alone.

One youth stated, “I feel like it impacted me by becoming better and seeing the positive sides of things. What I enjoyed was seeing others struggling as well, which made me feel like I wasn't alone because others had the same problem as me.”

These impacts have been seen in youth behaviors as well. Three months after completing Teen Court, only 10% of participants had an instance of recidivism, which is less than half (22%) compared to peers who go through the traditional Youth Justice processes. Volunteers also report that participating in Teen Court has positively impacted them. This has helped them build skills related to empathy, confidence-building, professional development, teamwork, and personal growth.

Teen Court would not be possible without the outstanding collaboration amongst partners and the initial willingness to try a new approach to working with youth. The program has also been a generous recipient of a grant from the Wisconsin Law Foundation, charitable arm of the State Bar of Wisconsin, for the past two years which has helped with recruitment efforts and programming needs.