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Justice issues warning to girls

• The state's youngest Supreme Court justice speaks to Merry Acres Middle School on Thursday.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — More than 200 Merry Acres Middle School students got to learn about the law Thursday from one of the state’s best sources — a Georgia Supreme Court justice.

Justice Harold Melton, the youngest justice on the court at age 41, spoke to the school’s eighth graders about how the law and court systems work, their role in society and how to avoidtrouble in life.

Melton gave the students four pieces of advice during his appearance at the school: be idealistic, develop their “internal engines,” work hard and treat people right.

Their internal engines include their value and religious belief systems, he said.

“Life just had a way of taking care of itself if I just worked hard and treated people well,” he told the filled cafeteria.

Addressing value systems, he said that some people put the emphasis on self or demand respect for self at the cost of others — including “a system that says ‘keep your woman in check’ ” — Melton pointed out that “these are false systems.”

Melton then gave a specific piece of advice to the girls of the assembly.

“Ladies, one of the things that can take you off your course is knuckle head men,” he said, warning them that many boys will claim to love them because the girls make them feel good.

But because the boys haven’t learned to “put down their toys and pick up responsibility,” they will treat girls like toys, he said.

“That’s not love of you ... it’s love of them,” he said. “As young men, sometimes we don’t do good at putting down the toys.”

As he explained the role of law in society, Melton pointed out that the court process is different than the way it is often portrayed in television, requiring months and months of research before a case can be presented.

“The practice of law involves a lot of reading, a lot of writing,” he said. “It involves a lot of research and a lot of problem solving.

“That’s what lawyers do. We solve problems and resolve disputes.”

He finished his speech by explaining his favorite thing about the court system; the “rule of law,” which he said treats everyone in the nation equally and holds them all accountable.

“It’s just that the rule of law is so critical in terms of how we operate as a country and as a state and as a community,” he said.

Melton took questions from the students, who asked about everything from what he thought on some current cases being brought to national attention to whether he thought about doing anything besides law (he would have liked to play the trumpet, he said).

Jessica Burnett said she enjoyed learning about the court system from the justice.

“I think it was very interesting and exciting for a supreme court justice to come speak to us,” the 14-year-old said. “I learned a lot of stuff I didn’t know.”

Her favorite thing Melton talked about, she said, were his experiences with different court cases.

“We got to know more about what he does and how his values and beliefs tie into the system,” she said.

Kensley Fields, also 14, said he enjoyed the experience because he had ambitions to get involved with government — particularly the executive branch — as he got older.

“I thought it was a great experience. I thought it was nice of him to come,” he said.

“If you do the right thing, work hard, play by the rules and apply yourselves, you might just be lucky that you’ll be at the right place at the right time,” Principal Ufot Inyang told the kids before dismissing them.

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