The State Bar is pleased to announce the implementation of the High School Mentor Partnership Program. This Program is to have State Bar members work with the school system in teaching high school students about their rights and responsibilities under the law. The State Board of Education has approved this Program and is working with the State Bar to make it a success. The County School Superintendents have received materials and information about this Program.

Hundreds of lawyers have signed up to participate. They have agreed to make presentations on a variety of topics to students as well as to help in setting up visits to circuit courthouses in each county and to law offices. The State Bar has made packets of material available to the lawyers for these presentations on numerous legal topics.

The Program is operated in a very simple fashion. The listing of all lawyers participating - their addresses, their telephone numbers, their fax numbers and their e-mail addresses are listed on the State Bar's homepage at - /barinfo/HSMPP/main.asp. Teachers can then utilize the homepage to make contact with those lawyers when they need to have a legal presentation made in their classroom. The teachers decide when it is appropriate during the curriculum for these presentations to be made. Once contact is made with the lawyer, then a mutually agreeable date and time is set for the lawyer to respond to the teacher's request. If there are any difficulties or problems which occur, the teachers in the school system can contact the State Bar office. An evaluation process will be utilized to gauge the success of the Program.

The High School Mentor Partnership Program will benefit our young people in West Virginia's school system. They are the future of our state