The Literature of Human Rights class will meet with both professors and students at the University of North Texas College of Law during their upcoming field trip Monday, Oct. 28.
Students plan to learn about wrongful convictions in Dallas, meeting with important figures in the Dallas justice system.
“I am very excited for this,” Associate Head of School for Mission, Community and Culture Tom Perryman ’81 said, who teaches the class. “This trip is a very powerful experience, and kids always come back fired up.”
First, the class will meet with two UNT professors at the Joyce Ann Brown Innocence Clinic, UNT law school’s program aimed at exonerating wrongly incarcerated individuals.
“We will look at cases, how the police ended up arresting them, what evidence they used and how they were exonerated,” senior Shreya Chhaya said.
Two UNT professors will guide the class through their discussion, both of which are Greenhill alumi, Angela Downes ’87 and Loren Jacobson ’93. Their shared background with the students will hopefully further motivate the class as well, Perryman says.
“I hope the students realize that folks who are trying to correct these problems are Greenhill alums,” Perryman said. “These are people who were sitting where they were 20 years ago.”
The class, which is listed as both an Upper School history and English credit, has also briefly talked about these alums. Many students say that the presence of these alumni has influenced their learning.
“It is so interesting to hear about the past Greenhill alums who took this path and what they have gone on to do in the future,” Chhaya said. “It is like how they have taken what they learned at Greenhill and done something with it.”
Perryman says the inspirational conversations will not stop there, as the class will then meet with Richard Miles, a wrongly incarcerated man.
“He tells his story, and it is just amazing, it is incredible,” Perryman said.
Perryman says he hopes this meeting will make the cases feel more real to the students.
“They will actually shake the hand of someone who spent 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit,” Perryman said. “It kind of drives home this realization that this happened to a real human being.”
Following these discussions, the class plans to work on their projects which are case studies on wrongly convicted people in Dallas.
“My group is looking at the story of Joyce Ann Brown,” Chhaya said. “She was arrested for murder and exonerated 10 years later.”
Taking what they learn on the field trip, Perryman says he hopes the class will have a new view on human rights, especially seeing how it has affected the Dallas community.
“It makes you want to make a change, and I really appreciate that,” Chhaya said. “Mr. Perryman always stresses this, but it is like ‘what can you do to make a difference?’”
