A day after finishing their civics end-of-course exams, seventh graders from Liza Jackson Preparatory School walked into the Okaloosa County Courthouse on Friday in Fort Walton Beach — not as spectators, but as participants.

• Students volunteered to be handcuffed during a booking demonstration, wore GPS ankle monitors, took part in a courtroom interrogation exercise on the Fifth Amendment and were quizzed on constitutional law by a county judge who started the tradition seven years ago when her own son was in the seventh grade.

“I wanted to introduce kids to the system in a safe way so they’re not scared,” said Okaloosa County Judge Angela Mason. “And particularly in seventh grade where they’re learning civics, they’re seeing that in action.”

The field trip, now in its seventh year, originated when Mason’s oldest son was a seventh grader at Liza Jackson and studying civics. Mason, who had previously prosecuted shaken baby cases in which children were called to testify, said she saw an opportunity to give students a positive first experience with the court system rather than a frightening one.

“When I became a judge, he was in seventh grade and learning civics, and I thought it would be really cool if, now that I’m in a judicial role, I can introduce kids to the system in a safe way,” Mason said.

Friday’s itinerary packed a full morning of hands-on experiences and presentations from professionals across the justice system. Students split into groups and rotated through stations that included the courtroom, a “back of the house” tour of booking and temporary holding cells, presentations from attorneys and law enforcement, a probation equipment demonstration and a K-9 demonstration with the Fort Walton Beach Police Department.

In the courtroom, Mason opened the morning by asking students to identify which branch of government law enforcement falls under. Hands shot up immediately.

“Executive,” a student answered.

Mason then asked why it is important to have separate branches of government.

“So that one government or one branch doesn’t get too powerful,” another student responded.

Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office Maj. David Allen, a 22-year law enforcement veteran, spoke to the students about the structure of the agency and the variety of career paths available, from the cadet program and K-9 unit to the marine unit, SWAT team, crisis negotiations and dive team. He also fielded questions about body cameras, the academy, education requirements and whether officers have to be tased and pepper-sprayed during training.

• “Yes,” Allen said, drawing laughs. “I would rather get tased than sprayed, but I don’t like getting tased either.”

Allen told students he once was accidentally tased by a fellow officer while the two were wrestling with a suspect.

The attorneys who spoke to the class each came from different educational backgrounds — a detail Mason said was intentional. Ashley Herndon from the State Attorney’s Office studied psychology. Mason herself majored in political science. Jason McKinney represented the Public Defender’s Office, and Byron Cotton spoke as a local private attorney.

“They can see that Ashley’s psychology degree and my political science are different subjects, but they come together to make good lawyers, even if you take a different avenue to be there,” Mason said.

That message resonated with seventh grade civics teacher Brianne LeBlanc, who said many students walked in assuming a career in law required a specific degree.

• “Many assumed that they needed a criminology degree or something along those lines,” LeBlanc said. “It was insightful for a lot of them to hear that it doesn’t matter what my bachelor’s degree is — I can still go into law.”

Court interpreter Lorena Cardenas demonstrated how real-time interpretation works in a courtroom, a presentation Mason said was designed to highlight the importance of Spanish and language skills. To bring the demonstration to life, a student who was fluent in Spanish was called to participate. 

Mason told the student that he “at this point no longer speaks English.” From there, Mason spoke to the student from the bench, and the student listened to Cardenas interpret her words into Spanish before responding back to her in Spanish — which Cardenas then translated into English for the courtroom.

Probation officers walked students through the tools of their trade, including SCRAM alcohol monitors and GPS tracking devices. Two students wore the GPS ankle monitors for the duration of the field trip and were shown the tracking data near the end of the session to see how the system monitors movement in real time.

During the booking tour, Sgt. Martin Jennings led students through the back of the courthouse, where they learned how inmates and those who have been arrested are processed and saw the temporary holding cells used for court appearances. Mason was deliberate in setting expectations before students entered the area.

• “You need to be very mindful that not a lot of fun happens for the inmates who are there,” Mason told the students. “And hopefully, after you see it, you won’t want to go back.”

In her interview, Mason said the tour is designed to give students an honest picture.

“There are a lot of misconceptions about jail and what it’s like,” she said. “I need them to see what is real. Holding cells are not comfortable. They’re not meant to be. But they are safe, and people are well cared for while they are here.”

One of the highlights of the day was the Fifth Amendment interrogation exercise, a tradition that began by accident during the field trip’s first year. Mason said she noticed students losing interest during an attorney’s presentation, so she pulled her son’s best friend to the front of the courtroom for a surprise interrogation.

• “I happened to know that he had done something he didn’t think I knew,” Mason said. “So I said, ‘Let’s see this in action.’ And I did an interrogation with him where he very quickly realized that I knew he played hide and seek in my house and that he hid on top of the refrigerator.”

The exercise went over so well that it became a staple. Each year, teachers coordinate with parents ahead of time to identify volunteers and gather a lighthearted backstory for the mock interrogation.

“God love middle schoolers, but they think they can outsmart us,” Mason said. “And so I just also love to remind them that they can’t.”

Upstairs in a larger room, the Fort Walton Beach Police Department brought two K-9s for a demonstration: Milo, a labradoodle who serves as the department’s first community wellness K-9, providing comfort to witnesses and victims involved in traumatic events, and Odin, a patrol K-9 trained in tracking and apprehension.

Mason said the K-9 portion of the day holds particular meaning. She said it is partly held in honor of Deputy Cullen Coraine, Liza Jackson’s beloved school resource officer, who died on March 23, 2023.

• “One of my favorite people in the world was an SRO there. He’s no longer with us, and so part of this, particularly the dog side of it, is in honor of Cullen,” Mason said.

LeBlanc, who took over the field trip two years ago, said this year’s group was especially sharp. Students rattled off all five parts of the Fifth Amendment faster than any previous class, she said, and one student asked a question about international arbitration — something Mason said had never come up before.

“They shined in front of a room full of adults that know a lot more than they do, but they were confident in what they’ve learned about the judicial system and the courtroom, and they exhibited that well,” LeBlanc said.

LeBlanc credited the timing — one day after the civics EOC — with keeping the material fresh, along with months of spiral review across all civics standards. She also said she spent the week before the trip setting clear expectations about behavior.

• “This is a place of business. Court is still taking place maybe in some of the other courtrooms. Treat it with the respect that it deserves,” LeBlanc said she told her students. “These people are taking time out of their day to help you and bring you in and invite you to enjoy the experience.”

Some students arrived skeptical. LeBlanc said a few grumbled about the trip, expecting it to be boring. By the end of the day, she said she received unsolicited feedback from students who told other teachers how much they enjoyed it.

Mason said Liza Jackson is the only school that participates in the program to this extent, though she has hosted smaller programs for other groups, including a fourth-grade elementary class and an international military leadership program through Hurlburt Field called Building Partnerships in Aviation Communities.

“I have offered it to other schools,” Mason said. “Hopefully, they’ll read this article and start taking me up on it.”

Mason, the first Destin native to serve on the bench, said the field trip reflects something deeply personal. Her great-great-grandfather, William Marler, was one of the founders and first settlers of the city of Destin.

• “This area is incredibly personal to me,” she said. “And if I get to continue that legacy of making it a safe and open place for people, even through the court system, I am going to do that as often as they’ll let me.”

For LeBlanc, the field trip marks the unofficial start of a new cycle. Even as the school year winds down, she said it already has her thinking about next year.

“It is something that does revive just civics and starting over next year with a new group of kids and how I can make improvements throughout my instruction leading up to this trip,” she said.

Asked what the field trip means to her, Mason didn’t need long to answer.

“It’s my favorite,” she said. “Every single year.”