Author: Liam
Co-author: Maggie
On Nov 17th 2025, the 7th grade went on a field trip to the courthouse. We started out our trip by meeting attorney Gerlie Fishel, who was our tour guide throughout this experience. After a quick group photo in front of the county jail, we headed over to the SJPD (San Jose Police Department). At the front of the building, there was a memorial star built to honor the police who passed away on the job. A few minutes later, Karen (an administrator at SJPD) talked more in depth about the memorial and how people pass by and set down flowers to honor the lives of the people whose names had been engraved into the stone. As it started to sprinkle, Karen led us over to the 911 call center. We had to be very quiet because of the nearly 24/7 demand for help. After having a conversation with call-supervisor Jen V, we met the MERGE team who showed us their gear, and the bomb squad who presented to us their robots.
We ate lunch at the deputy district attorney’s office while lawyer Allyson Ortega gave a presentation about federalism and talked about crime in The Outsiders, which we all read in ELA. After lunch, we went to a courtroom and met Judge Valencia who answered our questions about law and the court process. We ended our trip with a visit to the crime lab, where criminalist Tahnee Mehmet demonstrated what her job is and how she is able to do it. After our busy and fascinating day of learning, we headed back to school for pickup.
