Nebraska’s Supreme court is coming to Bryan and doing a trial in the auditorium for students to watch today April 2, 2025.

Principal Anthony Clark-Kaczmarek was approached directly by Nebraska’s Supreme Court about the opportunity before winter break and the school has been preparing since then.

“Preparing the auditorium, how we’re going to get students engaged in the case, communicating with the Nebraska Supreme Court to see what we need to do to be prepared,” said Megan Kaminiski-Doloto. “All the ins and outs … there’s a lot of details you don’t really think about but it’s been months of that kind of preparation.”

Theres no specific reason Bryan was chosen for this but they are making the most of the opportunity. The event has been planned to the very last second.

“They’ll open the doors about 12:30. Students are going to have to go through metal detectors. The State Patrol will be there doing a search for safety, for everybody,” Kaminiski-Doloto said.“We’re going to start with Mr. Clausen and Mr. Wendell. They will be leading a dialogue about what is the Nebraska Supreme Court, how do cases get to the Nebraska Supreme Court and then they’re going to talk a little bit about the case, so particularly we’re looking at like private property and what property ownership means. Then principal CK will introduce the Supreme Court and he’ll go over rules and regulations and then the trial will begin. The trial is supposed to be over about 2:30-ish and then we’re going to have a whole Q&A session where our students have been preparing about 50 questions they’re going to ask to the court.”

There will be about 200 students in the audience from American Government and Law and Juvenile Justice classes as well as student organizations that will be helping like Drama, Student Ambassadors and Journalism.

“I would like to help because it seems kind of cool to get to meet these people from the. Supreme court and being able to interact with them and see what they do,” said Student Ambassador Torrin Baker-Hodges.

There will be seven justices and each will be greeted personally by the Student Ambassadors, then led to the auditorium by 1:15 when the trial will begin.

“When they come and park they’re (student ambassadors) going to greet them in the parking lot and make sure that they know exactly where to go and then throughout the day, as they’re asking like, ‘where’s the restroom, where can I get paper?’ the ambassadors are going to facilitate that,” said Student Ambassador’s coordinator, Jennica Ignowski.

“There’s another person … an attorney so they’re going to assist them doing the same exact thing. The last function is there’s going to be a Q&A session where the student ambassadors are going to help lead the conversation a bit; they’ll ask a question that leads the other audience members to participate more.”

The Student Ambassadors will be well supported throughout the event with teachers around for help and are going to be provided a sheet that will help guide them in case they get confused. They have been preparing for this event for a while now.

“We’ve had a lot of discussions on what are the roles and if you could hand pick which one are you most comfortable with,” Ignowski said. “We meet on Fridays, so before spring break we met and we had a real big discussion on understanding all of the events of the day. Then I send e-mail reminders to just to try to help remind them.”

Principal CK decided that the Student Ambassadors had the necessary skills to make this event run smoothly.

“I’ve been going here for four years. I know where everything is and can talk to them about what happens here and what we’re doing,” Baker-Hodges said.

When it came to choosing which ambassadors will be helping with the event Ignowski encouraged all but looked for one specific skill.

“A willingness to be adaptable because who knows what the personality is going to be like of this stranger? They might be kind of awkward and so they need to know to be ready to expect anything,” Ignowski said.

Everything is planned out and ready to go but that was at the cost of a few challenges.

“Id like to provide all students with experience and it was hard for me to narrow who would get to go,” Kaminiski-Doloto said. “If you haven’t had the grounding in government, it might come off kind of boring or you might be more confused than actually gaining from the experience.”

The event itself can manifest some nerves on its own.

“It’s a big sounding thing so everyone is anxious about it and wants to be sure everything goes the way it’s supposed to,” Baker-Hodges said.

The school has provided this event as a unique learning experience for students and hope they will learn something from it.

“This gives students a better grounding of what law is,” Kaminiski-Doloto said. “It’s having you guys understand what role you can play in law and how you can advocate for your own rights and not being scared of the process.”