classroom court case

The other day I was cleaning my desk (a rare occurrence) and I found a letter from a couple of my students. Now, to understand the letter, I first need to give you a bit of background:

1. We have a classroom economy in my class where kids apply for classroom jobs and then are paid weekly in classroom money.  They can buy homework passes, lunch parties with me, and raffle tickets for prizes.  They can also be fined for calling out, losing worksheets, whining, etc.  
2. Some of my kids have created book companies and are selling their published work to each other for classroom money.
3. LW Books is owned by two boys.
4. NNE Books is owned by three girls.

Okay, back to the letter.

Dear Mrs. Eddy,

We feel we have the right to sue LW Books.  Emily willingly bought one of our "How to Survive School" books.  LW Books writers came up to us and told us that they told Emily to write a bad review on "How to Survive School."  We feel we have the right to sue LW Books for this. We would also like you to know that we have hired Connor as our lawyer.

Sincerely,

NNE Books

Well, at first I told NNE Books that they didn't have a right to sue because Emily has the freedom to write whatever she wants.  But then I thought about it a little.  LW Books hired Emily to write the review and because of this, other kids aren't buying books from NNE.  Well I am no legal expert, and so I emailed my sister (who is a lawyer).  Turns out that NNE Books does have a case!  So I decided that we would wrap up the year by pulling together many of the writing skills we have learned and put together a mock trial.  My sister has volunteered to help each side with preparing their case, and then she plans to come in and oversee the trial.  Ahhhh!  This is going to be great.  I simply cannot wait!

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