MIDLAND, Texas — Everybody makes mistakes, especially our youth.
When a teen in Midland gets in trouble with the law, instead of having a mistake on their record, they have an opportunity to appear in Midland Teen Court.
"Teen courts are a restorative justice system," teen attorney Cody Munoz said. "We give second chances to kids who make mistakes, typically Class C misdemeanors, typically speeding, stealing, all that type of stuff. A lot of tobacco possession. But we give them a second chance by offering them service hours in exchange for getting the mistake off their record. So it's been really good and we have a really high success rate."
And these teen defendants are represented by teen attorneys.
"So I can either prosecute or defend a defendant," teen attorney Kristin Gibbons said. "And I can hopefully impart on them some life lessons I've learned through the program and from my parents. And I can help them try to better their lives and set it on a better track."
Some of these now high school graduates have been doing this since they were 15.
"I was looking for volunteer work during [...] COVID season," teen attorney Colton Coates said. "My mom found the teen court on Facebook, [...] and she told me about it and I interviewed for it and they let me in."
"I was in 7th grade and one of my friends was actually involved in the program and she brought me to court one day," Munoz said. "And then I just fell in love, so I've been involved since then."
And one now attorney was once on the other side of the podium.
"I got introduced to this program because I myself got in trouble," teen attorney Fidel Gardea said.
Showing how it’s not too late when you make that one mistake.
"After that I kind of liked it and I asked him if I could be part of it and they let me," Gardea said.
These five recent high school grads did so well in their lawful role, the Teen Court wanted to reward them.
Kristin Gibbons-- planning on attending the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign-- and Nicole Patel got $1,000 scholarships.
Colton Coates-- planning on attending Lubbock Christian University-- Fidel Gardea-- planning on attending Midland College and UTPB-- and Cody Munoz, planning on attending the University of Texas at Austin-- each got $2,500 scholarships.
"You know I didn't do Teen Court for the scholarship money," Coates said. "I knew about it, of course, but my main goal with Teen Court was just to serve and, you know, give back to the community that's done so much for me in the past."
This scholarship will help them pursue their future careers, and thanks to this program, each of these teen attorneys want to become adult attorneys.
"Before I just thought, 'I'm just going to work in the oil field like everyone else', you know, blue collar," Gardea said. "But after this program, I kind of thought about maybe going to become a lawyer. Started to become one of my dreams."
"[It's] something I feel is by my calling," Coates said.
A calling that they became passionate about.
"I like having a stance and then being able to pick apart different parts of the evidence and really try to drive home my point to not only the judge but the jurors and really and really put a lot of time into the cases and make my stance on an issue very clear," Gibbons said.
"It's really such a rewarding experience," Coates said. "You just get so much out of it. And I've gotten a lot out of it. I mean, I have a fear of public speaking. So this is terrifying for me, but I've gotten so much out of it and it's helped me."
And if they do as well as adult attorneys as they did as teen attorneys, get used to seeing their names on park benches, billboards or with a catchy jingle.