Judicial Branch Public Information Officer, Janet Bancroft, will highlight new and ongoing outreach efforts of the Nebraska Judicial Branch during the Conference of Court Public Information Officers annual meeting in Cleveland, Ohio. The Conference is the only professional organization dedicated to the role of court communicators worldwide. 

Nebraska’s contribution to How to Wrangle a Hundred Students, Keep Their Attention and Teach Them Something Along the Way will include:

• Nebraska’s unique “Kids Quiz” given to large student groups who visit the courtroom as a springboard to discuss Nebraska’s Supreme Court and trial court structure. The paper-based quiz requires students to walk around the courtroom and answer questions like, how many chairs are behind the bench and who sits in them? Where is the witness chair? Where are the TV cameras?
• Appellate Court oral argument visits to High Schools, Colleges and Law Schools and the associated celebrations of Law Day and Constitution Day.
• 5th Grade Job Shadowing supported by trial court clerks and judges throughout the state.
• Nebraska High School Mock Trials (which had its beginnings in the Nebraska Supreme Court before eventually transferring to the Nebraska State Bar Foundation) and Nebraska’s first-in-the-nation Mock Trial Student News Reporter Contest launched last mock trial season.
• Adaptations of National Judicial Outreach Week which, this year, were hosted by Justice Funke teaching UNL College of Journalism students and Justice Stacy speaking with elementary school students in the Supreme Court courtroom.

Nebraska will share the stage with programs from National Center for State Courts, Missouri Supreme Court and members of an outreach delegation from the Ukraine.

A separate panel presentation titled Strategies for Dealing with Misinformation, Disinformation, and Unwarranted Criticism will feature Nebraska’s budding efforts focused on warding off unfair criticism of the court system through the newly organized Nebraskans for Fair and Impartial Courts Committee.