James M. Redwine

North Posey High School

History Reported – Not Repeated

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Posey County, Indiana

I would like to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear, you know, when you could turn on the television and not hear overpaid jerks shouting at one another,“You are lying!” Unfortunately, unless I watch re-runs of “I Love Lucy”, invective is the only fare available. As Anne Murray sings, 🎵”We sure could use a little good news today”🎵. Well, here is some.

My friends Glenn Curtis, Ray Kessler, Jerry King and Harold Morgan, Gentle Reader you might note a particular demographic here, all write a lot of good news. Glenn, Posey County’s Historian Emeritus, even drafts entertaining cartoons about current events and historical ones.

Harold Morgan has written several books on area history with a concentration on World War II. Ray Kessler in his Ray’s Ramblings has preserved many entertaining and enlightening stories while Jerry King, with his wife Marsha’s support, has taught us all a great deal about Posey County and the Civil War with a current emphasis on The Great War.

Posey County is a unique place. I wish we had more information on the Native Americans who first lived here, but from McFadden’s Bluff to 2018 we have some pretty good records, although much of our early information is via oral tradition.

On the other hand, we have several excellent professional historians, such as U.S.I.’s Emeritus Professor of History Donald Pitzer, who have researched and corroborated the deeds and words of Posey County residents who have made significant contributions in many areas.

Of course, tomorrow’s history is today’s news and we need new generations of historians to help preserve it. Chad Williams, the official Poseyville Historian who graduated from North Posey High School in 1988, is one who has joined in the responsibility of documenting our past and present. There are numerous others and I apologize to those who deserve to be mentioned but due to time and space are not.

Each of the people mentioned in this article can be located by name on the Internet. I respectfully refer you to their informative, entertaining and objective efforts to preserve our past and guide our future without resort to diatribe.

Reasoning Together

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Mediation has been required in the courts of Posey County for over twenty years. The Bar Association members are critical in the successful resolution of matters by the encouragement of fair and equal bargaining between opposing parties in court cases.

Last Monday’s Law Day (April 10, 2017) verdict decided the competing interests of North Posey High School students and Mt. Vernon High School students. In the Mock Trial presided over by Judge Brent Almon and decided by a jury composed of Posey County attorneys, the wisdom of reasoning together in good faith was reaffirmed. The real-life attorneys ruled that both teams of student attorneys won.

The issue to be determined was which party or parties, i.e., which high school, would have the legal right to auction off the naming of the newly discovered planets of the star Trappist-1. The jury wisely decided that each school could name half of them.

As a spectator I was impressed with the hard work, intelligence and imagination of the students from both schools. The excellent supervision and guidance of their teachers, Michele Parrish, Mike Kuhn, Lucy Steinhart and Tim Alcorn, was evident.

This year’s Mock Trial was the thirty-fifth straight year Posey County’s high schools have participated in celebrating Law Day with the Posey County Bar Association. About two thousand students and many regularly practicing attorneys have joined in this important commemoration.

Perhaps next year at Law Day you may wish to join us and should you need justice from a Posey County court the Bar’s approach should give you confidence in the outcome.

The Name Game

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Mt. Vernon High School
North Posey High School

On Monday, April 10, 2017 in the Posey Circuit Court a jury composed of attorneys from the Posey County Bar Association decided, that is declared, whether North Posey High School or Mt. Vernon High School or neither of them won the exclusive right to name the newly discovered planets of the dwarf star named Trappist-1. The Mock Trial was the centerpiece of the annual Posey County Law Day celebration during which America contrasts the role law plays in protecting our rights with systems where individual liberties are not paramount.

North Posey (A.K.A. Muhammad High School) student attorneys Zack Goebel and Veronica Inkenbrandt pitted themselves against Mt. Vernon (A.K.A. Peacock Throne High School) student lawyers Shane Vantlin and Ashley Ford. The case began when both fictional schools individually claimed to have developed a fund raising plan based on auctioning off the rights to name the seven newly found planets of Trappist-1, which are only 235 trillion miles from Earth. Each school claimed it thought of the scheme first but that the other high school purloined the plan.

Mr. Mike Kuhn and Ms. Michele Parrish are the advisors to the North Posey students who include the following participants and their roles as members of the two fictional private schools in Posey County, Indiana:

Hannah Braun – Sarah Jones, School Board President of Muhammad High School;
Ryan Daughtery – Jaime David, Edward Jones advisor;
Isaac Mayer – Akmed Barnes, Muhammad High School senior;
Josh Wiggins – Walter Cronkite, Science Reporter;
Lexi Fifer – Hagar Shunley, junior at Muhammad High School;
Jade Hill and Ethan Morlock, Alternates.

Mt. Vernon’s advisors are Ms. Lucy Steinhart and Mr. Tim Alcorn. Their students are:

Austin Bethel – Ibrehim Smith, School Board President of Peacock Throne High School;
Whitney Schaefer – Baretta Fife, Internal Revenue Agent;
Adam Duckworth – Julian Assange, Hacker;
Corinna Lambright – Rasheema Ellis, Morgan Stanley Financial Advisor;
Wade Ripple – Abdul Parker; senior at Peacock Throne High School; and,

If you want to know how the students and the Posey County Bar Association celebrated the Rule of Law over military might, you are welcome to tune in here next week.

Coming Soon to a Courtroom Near You

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On April 10, 2017 in the courtroom of the Posey Circuit Court the Posey County Bar Association and teachers and students from Mt. Vernon High School and North Posey High School will celebrate the Rule of Law. Law Day was established as a response to the Soviet Union’s military display on May Day.

This will be the thirty-fourth straight year the Bar and the schools have joined in the presentation of a Mock Trial in which the teachers guide their students in a jury trial. From 1984 until New Harmony High School closed the three schools rotated portraying the court personnel and each of two sides to a fictional case. Now the Bar Association provides the judge, Superior Court Judge Brent Almon, and the jury composed of attorneys.

The two high schools select students who enact the roles of witnesses called to testify by student attorneys who also argue their cases to the jury. The jury of practicing lawyers decides the outcome from which there is no appeal.

Over the years over a thousand Posey County students have learned by actual doing how their legal system works. Some of the student attorneys have gone on to become actual members of the Bar.

The Mock Trial is open to the public and will begin at 8:30 am on April 10. While cameras and recording devices are usually prohibited in Indiana courts, anyone who wishes to attend is welcome to take photographs and record the proceedings.

Next week the Mock Trial case and the names of the participants from the two high schools will be divulged.

Photo Taken by Rodney Fetcher

Mock Trial

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This event is open to the public! Mock Trial: The annual celebration of Law Day involving the Posey County Bar Association and both Posey County High Schools – Mt. Vernon High School and North Posey High School.

Vikings & Eagles Unite

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Michelle Fortune and Jason Simmons are Posey County Probation Officers who work out of the same office on the first floor of the courthouse. They and their spouses have been friends for many years. Michelle and Jason both graduated from North Posey High School (the Vikings), Michelle in 1995 and Jason in 1994. Michelle and Jason both graduated from U.S.I. (the Screaming Eagles) in 1999.

Michelle is married to Detective Jeremy Fortune of the Posey County Sheriff’s Department. They have two children, Emily and Reagan. Jason and his wife Christine have two children, Alexa and Logan. Christine is a credit analyst for Old National Bank.

Michelle and Jason give generously of their time, talent and money to several public organizations. Jason and his family attend Frances Xavier Catholic Church and Jason has been a volunteer youth baseball, softball and basketball coach for several years. Jason plays golf and mows a lot of grass at his rural home near New Harmony, Indiana.

Michelle fought and defeated cancer and continues to maintain a regimen of physical fitness. She has competed in Spartan Races and serves as president of the Mt. Vernon F.O.P. Lodge #133 Auxiliary. Michelle is also a volunteer member of the important Posey County Critical Incident Response Team.

Michelle has been with the Posey Circuit Court Probation Department since July 1999. Jason joined the Probation Department in 2003. Together they perform myriad duties while working mainly with adult probationers. At my request, they have listed some of their duties as set forth below:

Conduct pre-hearing and pre-sentence investigations and prepare reports as required by law;

Assist the courts in making pretrial release decisions;

Assist the courts, prosecuting attorneys, and other law enforcement officials in making decisions regarding the diversion of charged individuals to appropriate non-criminal alternatives;

Furnish each person placed on probation a written statement of the conditions of probation and give instructions regarding how those conditions are to be met;

Supervise and assist persons on probation consistent with conditions of probation imposed by the court;

Bring to the court’s attention any modification in the conditions of probation considered advisable;

Notify the court when a violation of a condition of probation occurs;

Cooperate with public and private agencies and other persons concerned with the treatment or welfare of persons on probation, and assist them in obtaining services from those agencies and persons;

Keep accurate records of cases investigated by the probation officer and of all cases assigned by the court and make these records available to the court upon request;

Collect and disburse money from persons under supervision according to the order of the court, and keep accurate and complete accounts of those collections and disbursements;

Assist the court in transferring supervision of a person on probation to a court in another jurisdiction; and

Perform other duties required by law or as directed by the court.

During the course of performing these duties, a Probation Officer often takes on other roles such as social worker, therapist, and broker of services. Although probation officers are not allowed to give legal advice they must be knowledgeable in many areas of the law as often times they become witnesses and must testify in Court.

Posey County’s six probation officers work as a team. The fact that long-time friends can collaborate on these important matters provides even better public service.

 

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